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Goooo Team.... er, Union?

Kollman & Saucier
03/26/2014
Agency Activity, Labor Law
Forget March Madness baby.  Here’s where things get interesting. The Chicago Region of the NLRB has announced its decision that Northwestern University football players are “employees” under the National Labor Relations Act, and that they can vote to unionize.   Northwestern University, 13-R-121359 (March 26, 2014).   The University has indicated its intent to appeal the decision to the full NLRB in Washington. By way of background, a...
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FMLA Jury Verdict Overturned by Appellate Court

Kollman & Saucier
03/25/2014
FMLA
Employers often cringe when they think about taking a case to a jury.   Even if the facts are good for the company, juries are notoriously unpredictable and sometimes follow sympathies rather than legal reasoning. That, of course, is one reason why appellate review exists. A recent decision from the Eleventh Circuit provides a case study of the issue in the context of a company executive’s claim of a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violation...
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Court Rejects Hotel Room Discrimination Claim Without Reservations

Kollman & Saucier
03/14/2014
Employment Discrimination, Religious Discrimination
Business trips are a fact of life for many employees.  Reserving hotel rooms for these trips is commonplace: either the employee or a company representative contacts the hotel, and the hotel then arranges a room for that guest based on its current availability.  In spite of this, a disgruntled individual recently tried to sue his former company based on little more than the room he was assigned during one such trip in Rahman v. Crystal Equation,...
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Catholic Diocese Loses Its First Battle In Ministerial Exception Case

Kollman & Saucier
03/11/2014
Employment Discrimination
As the controversial recent bills that were proposed but ultimately not enacted in Arizona and several other states indicate, there is a passionate debate ongoing between civil rights advocates and the religious freedom movement.  Another example of this conflict is the “ministerial exception,” which rests at the intersection between federal employment discrimination laws, on one hand, and the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment on the...
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Fourth Circuit FindsTemporary Impairment Covered by ADAAA

Kollman & Saucier
02/01/2014
Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination
It was pretty clear under the ADA that a temporary impairment was not a covered “disability.” But that was before Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (the “ADAAA”) in 2008, expanding the scope of protection.   Now, the Fourth Circuit has become the first appellate court to address the issue of “temporary impairment” under the ADAAA. Summers v. Altarum Inst., Corp., (4th Cir. January 23, 2014). Reversing...
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Supreme Court Unanimous: Steel Workers Were Just Changing Clothes

Kollman & Saucier
01/29/2014
Supreme Court Decisions, Wage & Hour
The issue of what constitutes “compensable time” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is, for most employers, not so difficult to figure out: you clock in, you work, you get paid.   There are, however, some occupations where things are less clear. What if you have to put on a uniform (a police officer or fast food server)?  Well, if you can put it on at home and drive to work, you do not get paid for “doffing and donning,” as it is...
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FMLA Case Goes to Jury, Says Tenth Circuit

Kollman & Saucier
01/27/2014
FMLA
Employers who decide to fire an employee for a work rule violation usually feel pretty secure in the decision when the employee has admitted to the infraction. But it is important to remember that, in discrimination or retaliation cases, the real question is “how has the employer treated other employees in similar circumstances?” The need to focus on this “similarly situated” factor, as well as the possible “bad facts” in a case, was...
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Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Validity of NLRB Recess Appointments

Kollman & Saucier
01/17/2014
Agency Activity, Labor Law, Supreme Court Decisions
It turns out that schoolchildren aren’t the only ones who care about how long recess is.  On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, No. 12-1281, a case that is expected to decide how to allocate power between the President and Senate when it comes to recess appointments and could result in the invalidation of hundreds of NLRB decisions . For those unfamiliar with the case, by January 3,...
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Recording Supervisor's Racially Offensive Remarks Leads to Reduced Jury Verdict

Kollman & Saucier
01/15/2014
Employment Discrimination, Litigation
Baiting your supervisor to make racially offensive comments while secretly recording the conversation might seem like a great way to score a big settlement out of your employer.  However, that strategy can prove to be something of a double-edged sword -- at least  in the eyes of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Johnson v. STRIVE E. Harlem Emp’t Grp., No. 1:12-cv-04460 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 2, 2014). Rob...
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Supreme Court to Decide ACA Contraceptive Mandate Issue

Kollman & Saucier
12/02/2013
Affordable Care Act, Supreme Court Decisions
There has been a lot of discussion on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) over the past few months. Congress has been twisting about it; the Obama administration has been pilloried over it. But one branch of government was missing in the recent theatrics.  Not anymore.  On November 26, the Supreme Court threw its hat in the ring too, agreeing to consider the validity of the women’s preventive services mandate in two companion cases, Sebelius v. Hobby...
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