The Employment Brief | Employment Law | Kollman & Saucier, P.A.

Merely Alleging Decision-Maker Bias Insufficient to State a Title VII Claim

Kollman & Saucier

03/20/2015

It’s a victory for Fourth Circuit employers (Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia) as the court clarifies that a complaint alleging employment discrimination must contain facts in support of each element of a claim in order to survive a motion to dismiss. McCleary-Evans v. Maryland Dept. of Transportation, No. 13-2488 (4th Cir. March 13, 2015). In this case, McCleary-Evans, an African-American woman, applied for two...

Kollman & Saucier

03/18/2015

Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination

Can an employer lawfully fire a customer service employee whose social anxiety precludes her from interacting with customers? Not before exploring whether it can offer the employee a reasonable accommodation to perform her job duties, explained the Fourth Circuit in last week’s decision: Jacobs v. N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, No. 13-2212 (4th Cir. Mar. 12, 2015). In this case, Christina Jacobs, who suffered from social anxiety...

Kollman & Saucier

03/13/2015

Workplace Productivity

March 16 marks the beginning of the end of the NCAA college basketball season. A global outplacement firm did some number crunching and concluded that March Madness could cost employers as much as $1.9 billion (yes billion) in productivity. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., the firm conducting this study, based its calculations on the number of workers likely to be caught up in madness; the estimated time spent considering and completing...

Kollman & Saucier

03/11/2015

Agency Activity, Supreme Court Decisions, Wage & Hour

The Supreme Court has confirmed that federal agencies, including the Department of Labor (DOL), are exempted from the Administrative Procedure Act's formal notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements when changing interpretative rules, as explained in its unanimous decision Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass'n, No. 13-1041, (U.S. March 9, 2015). With this decision, the Supreme Court overruled the long established doctrine from Paralyzed Veterans of...

Kollman & Saucier

03/05/2015

Agency Activity, FMLA, Same-Sex Marriage

On February 25, 2015, the Department of Labor issued a Final Rule changing the definition of “spouse” under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The Final Rule impacts those individuals who entered into legal same-sex marriages in a state that recognizes same-sex marriage, but now reside in a state that does not. The prior iteration of the Rule defined “spouse” (29 CFR §§ 825.102 and 825.122(b)) based on the residency of the eligible...

Kollman & Saucier

02/27/2015

Business Law

If you were doing what tens of millions of others around the world were doing yesterday, you logged on to the internet, clicked on this link, and then argued with whoever was with you about the color of a dress. That's right -- the color of dress (please click on the link and I promise it will make sense, kind of). Here's how the conversation between me, my wife, and my daughter went: Daughter: "What color is the dress, Dad? Me:...

Kollman & Saucier

02/24/2015

Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination

On February 20, the Fourth Circuit became the second jurisdiction to reject the EEOC’s most recent attempt to expand disparate impact race claims. In EEOC v. Freeman, the Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of an employer in a case involving a challenge by the EEOC to the use of criminal background and credit history checks in the hiring process. The decision marks the second time in less than a year that the EEOC’s tactic has been...

Kollman & Saucier

02/20/2015

Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee who is a qualified individual with a disability. Employers are not required to provide unreasonable accommodations, such as those that do not enable an employee to perform the essential functions of a job or require the employer to create a new position. The Sixth Circuit recently reiterated this well-established rule in a case...

Kollman & Saucier

02/17/2015

Employment Discrimination

Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 cover claims of discrimination based on a perceived protected trait? Last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland answered "yes," holding that a plaintiff’s Title VII and Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act claims of discrimination based upon perceived national origin are viable causes of action. Arsham v. Mayor & City Council of Balt. No. 1:14-cv-02158 (D. Md. February...

Kollman & Saucier

02/12/2015

State Law, Wage & Hour

Last month, we wrote about the new District of Columbia Wage Theft Prevention Act, which dramatically changed D.C. wage and hour laws to impose new record keeping obligations and penalties on employers operating in the District. The new law is set to go into effect on February 26, 2015. After posting our article on the law, we received a number of comments from clients concerned about the law's requirement that employers keep time records for...

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Email Updates

Merely Alleging Decision-Maker Bias Insufficient to State a Title VII Claim

Customer Rep With Social Anxiety Can Proceed to Trial on Disability Claims

March Madness: Happy, Unproductive Employees?

Supreme Court Okays DOL's FLSA Interpretative Rule Change

Department of Labor Issues Revision To Definition of Spouse Under FMLA

"Of Course It's White and Gold!

Fourth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of EEOC Background Check Claims

No ADA Claim For Teacher With Fear Of Young Children

“Perceived National Origin” Discrimination Claims Viable Under Maryland And Federal Law

D.C. Amends Wage Theft Prevention Act to Remove Exempt Employee Time Tracking Requirement

Email Updates