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

Maryland Court Dismisses Transgender Discrimination Claim

Kollman & Saucier

02/11/2015

A federal court in Maryland has dismissed claims of transgender discrimination filed by an IRS agent. Hart v. Lew, D. Md. No. 1:12-cv-03482 (February 6, 2015). The male-to-female transgendered agent alleged she was fired because of gender stereotyping bias. The case arose when the agent, Sydney Hart, stopped coming to work in October 2009. Hart alleged she was ridiculed by co-workers and harassed by a supervisor who criticized her choice of...

Kollman & Saucier

01/30/2015

Disability & Leave, FMLA

Employers must be careful about treating employees as if the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies if, in fact, it does not apply. On January 26, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that Terry Tilley, an employee of the Kalamazoo County Road Commission (the “Commission”), could proceed with his FMLA claims even though he did not meet the FMLA’s definition of an “eligible employee.” Tilley v. Kalamazoo Cnty....

Kollman & Saucier

01/29/2015

Disability & Leave

On January 23, 2015, a federal jury New York awarded a former Rite Aid pharmacist Christopher Stevens $2.6 million in damages on a claim he brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the New York State Human Rights Law. Stevens has a fear of needles, which is otherwise known as trypanophobia. Stevens alleged that when receiving and witnessing injections, and observing surgical procedures involving the use of needles, he exhibited...

Kollman & Saucier

01/23/2015

Disability & Leave

Does an employer violate the ADA by firing an employee three weeks after the employee informs security that he is “unstable” and having homicidal thoughts? However unlikely a “yes” answer to that question may seem, a judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania concluded that it was possible in Walton v. Spherion Staffing LLC, No. 13-6896 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 13, 2015). Both the ADA and state disability discrimination laws permit employers to...

Kollman & Saucier

01/21/2015

Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination

Under what circumstances may a court scrutinize the EEOC’s claim that conciliation has failed? The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Mach Mining v. EEOC to address this precise issue. No. 13-1019 (Jan. 13, 2015). Although the vast majority of employment discrimination claims each year are brought by private parties, the EEOC possesses authority under Title VII to sue employers on behalf of an aggrieved employee(s), but only after...

Kollman & Saucier

01/15/2015

Disability & Leave

Two years ago, my twins were born ten weeks premature in a foreign country. Five months in the NICU followed by a terminal illness diagnosis for my son, I was left with no choice but to leave my job. I was fortunate. Not only did I receive support as I navigated those initial months of uncertainty, when circumstances changed and I was able to come back to work, I was invited to return to my former position. For many American workers, this would not...

Kollman & Saucier

01/12/2015

Business Law

The Protecting Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2014 took effect January 6, 2015. The Act requires all employers in the District of Columbia, regardless of size, to make reasonable accommodations for employees affected by childbirth, pregnancy, and related medical conditions, unless the employer can show that doing so would cause an undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense to the employer’s business.) An employer’s duty to engage in an...

Kollman & Saucier

01/09/2015

Disability & Leave, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden

In a 2-1 decision, the First Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employee who prematurely ended the interactive process when she quit could not maintain her ADA failure to accommodate claim against her former employer. In EEOC v. Kohl's Dep't Stores, Inc., No. 14-1268 (1st Cir. Dec. 19, 2014), Pamela Manning, a sales employee with diabetes, had requested a steady and predictable work schedule from the department store, where she worked from 2006...

Kollman & Saucier

01/08/2015

Hiring Process, Legislative Developments, State Law

Montgomery and Prince George's Counties join Baltimore City (and the District of Columbia) to now limit an employer's ability to inquire about an applicant's criminal history. This trend continues to grow, and very likely, will become Maryland state law sooner than later. Montgomery County Ordinance Effective January 1, 2015, most private employers with 15 or more full-time employees and that do business in Montgomery County may not inquire about...

Kollman & Saucier

12/31/2014

Labor Law

For approximately thirty years, religious colleges and universities could sleep easy at night knowing that the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment generally shielded them from the long arms of the National Labor Relations Act. However, a recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board greatly expands the reach of the NLRA and establishes a new test for union organizing at religious schools. Pacific Lutheran...

< 1 … 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 … 127 >

Email Updates

Maryland Court Dismisses Transgender Discrimination Claim

Check Your FMLA Policy

Fear of Needles Leads to Jury Verdict for Pharmacist

Court Holds Employer Who Fired Employee For Making Death Threats May Have Violated ADA

Supreme Court to Determine Scope of Judicial Review on EEOC Conciliation Process

President Obama Proposes Mandatory Paid SIck Leave Law

Two New Employment Laws Take Effect this Month in the District of Columbia

Employee Who Quit, And Ended Accommodation Talks, Has No ADA Claim

"Ban The Box" Continues To Catch On In Maryland

Religious Universities No Longer Sacred Ground For Union Organizing

Email Updates