Virginia Employment Law | Labor Attorney

Appellate Court Rules Employee Can Sue City of Alexandria as Joint Employer Under FMLA

Bernadette Hunton

06/09/2017

Employment Discrimination, FMLA, Virginia Employment Law

It is no secret that businesses today are increasingly outsourcing human resources functions in an effort to cut costs. But absent careful planning, the outsourcing employer may still bear legal liability for workplace discrimination issues. Here’s what the Fourth Circuit had to say about the subject in a case decided this week. Quintana v. City of Alexandria, et al., No. 16-1630 (4th Cir. 6/6/17). The case arose from the City of...

Eric Paltell

03/08/2017

Virginia Employment Law, Wrongful Discharge

On February 23, 2017, the Virginia Supreme Court sustained a demurrer to a complaint alleging a Bowman claim of wrongful termination. Francis v. National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts & Sciences, Inc. No. 160267. The Court rejected an employee's claims that the public policy embodied in Virginia Code §§ 19.2-152.7:1 through 19.2-152.10 (the Protective Order Statutes) provides the basis for a wrongful discharge claim. According to...

Eric Paltell

03/02/2017

Trade Secrets & Restictive Covenants, Virginia Employment Law

On February 14, 2017, a federal judge denied a home builders’ motion for a preliminary injunction to stop a former employee covered by a non-compete agreement from working for a competing builder. Applying Virginia law, Judge Liam O’Grady of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, ruled that the geographic scope of the non-compete was overbroad and, therefore, the agreement was invalid. NVR,...

Eric Paltell

01/05/2017

Military Leave, Virginia Employment Law

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently ruled that the Prince William County School Board did not violate the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act ("USERRA") when it fired a teacher who had returned from a four-year deployment to Kuwait. Butts v. Prince William County School Board, et. al., No. 15-1989 (4th Cir. Dec. 21, 2016). The Fourth Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgement to the School...

Eric Paltell

01/03/2017

Sexual Harassment, Virginia Employment Law

In Cobbs v First Transit Co. et. al., Case No. 6:16-cv-00015 (W.D. Va. Dec. 16, 2016), a federal judge in Lynchburg, Virginia ruled that a bus company took an adverse employment action against an employee by ending her light duty assignment. In so holding, the court ruled that an employee had pled a cause of action for “quid pro quo” sexual harassment under Title VII and denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. The case involved an employee...

Eric Paltell

11/03/2016

Disability & Leave, FMLA, Virginia Employment Law

On October 31st, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a Virginia federal court's dismissal of an airline employee's FMLA retaliation claim. The case arose when United Airlines fired the employee for using intermittent FMLA leave to excuse his failure to work the one shift he was scheduled to work during a lengthy vacation. Sharif v. United Airlines, et. al., No. 15-1747 (4th Cir. 10/31/16). According to the court's...

Eric Paltell

09/14/2016

Virginia Employment Law

A federal court in Alexandria, Virginia enforced a non-compete clause against a former employee of Hair Club for Men in Tysons Corner who stole 25 clients and set up a competing hair replacement business. Hair Club for Men, LLC v. Ehson, et. al., No. 1:16-cv-236 (E.D.Va. Aug. 31, 2016). However, the Court found Hair Club's non-solicitation clause unenforceable. The defendant former employee worked for Hair Club from 2011 to July 2014, when...

Eric Paltell

09/12/2016

Virginia Employment Law

On September 8, 2016, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that an employee who sues his employer for retaliatory discharge under Code §40.1-51.2:1 after making a health or safety complaint is not entitled to an award of punitive damages. Property Damage Specialists Inc. v. Rechichar. The Court reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court for Shenandoah County, where a jury had awarded both compensatory and punitive damages to a discharged...

Eric Paltell

08/04/2016

Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination, Virginia Employment Law

According to an article in the Washington Post, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that an employee may create a racially hostile work environment by wearing a hat depicting the "Gasden Flag" (a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase "Don't Tread On Me"). Sheldon D. v. Brennan, 2016 WL 3361228. The Gasden Flag, which gained recent popularity as a symbol of the Tea Party movement, has its origins in the American Revolution, when it was...

Eric Paltell

07/29/2016

Virginia Employment Law

Many of us who have worked for someone other than themselves have fantasized about walking in to the office one day, handing our boss a letter of resignation, and then walking out the door (with the lyrics of The Who's "I'm Free" playing in our heads). Some of us may have even taken the fantasy one step further and written that letter of resignation, only to leave it in a desk drawer. So what happens when an employee goes so far as to write...

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Appellate Court Rules Employee Can Sue City of Alexandria as Joint Employer Under FMLA

Virginia Supreme Court Affirms Dismissal of Bowman Claim Based on Protective Order Statutes

Virginia Court Strikes Down Homebuilder's Non-Compete Agreement

Fired Virginia Teacher Fails to Establish USERRA Claim

Federal Judge Declares Ending Light Duty Assignment to be Adverse Action

Court Affirms Dismissal of Vacationing Employee's FMLA Claim

Court Enforces Hair Club Non-Compete

Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Punitive Damage Award

EEOC Rules That "Don't Tread On Me" Hat Might Be Racially Offensive

"I Quit" - Well, Not Really ...

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Category: Virginia Employment Law

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