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

Weight Watchers Thrown for a Loss in EEOC Lawsuit

Clifford Geiger

12/13/2013

A federal judge recently denied Weight Watchers’ attempt to dismiss a Pregnancy Discrimination Act lawsuit filed against it by the EEOC. EEOC v. The WW Group, Inc., d/b/a Weight Watchers, Case 2:12-cv-11124 PDB-MAR (E.D. Mich. Dec. 2, 2013). The suit claims that the company did not permit Wendy Lamond-Broughton (“Broughton”) to apply for a job because she was pregnant. The company defended on the grounds that Broughton was not...

Kollman & Saucier

12/04/2013

Agency Activity, Arbitration, Labor Law

Employers scored a big victory yesterday when the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the National Labor Relations Board's D.R Horton ruling, which invalidated an employer's arbitration agreement containing a waiver of an employee's right to file class-action claims. D.R. Horton v. NLRB, 5th Cir No. 12-60031 (12/3/13). The decision will make it easier for employers to enforce class-action waivers, including waivers of...

Darrell VanDeusen

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...

Kollman & Saucier

11/26/2013

Retaliation, Sexual Harassment

Accusations of coworkers repeatedly “sniffing and hovering.” An employee terminated allegedly because she slammed a door and “swatted a fly harder than necessary.” Sounds like a great place to work, doesn’t it? This is the alleged work environment in a recent lawsuit decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Royal v. CCC&R Tres Arboles, LLC, No. 12-11022 (5th Cir. Nov. 21, 2013). Tonia Royal worked as...

Kollman & Saucier

11/25/2013

Sexual Harassment

Is a correctional facility where inmates (but not employees) openly display sexually suggestive materials in violation of the facility’s policies a hostile work environment for a correctional officer? No, according to a November 20, 2013 ruling by the Eastern District of California. Daniels v. Cal. Dep’t of Corr. & Rehab., No. 2:10-cv-00003-MCE-AC (E.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2013). The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Maria Aguilar, worked for the...

Kollman & Saucier

11/21/2013

Disability & Leave, Public Sector Employment Law

As regular readers of The Employment Brief are aware, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides the basis for many lawsuits filed by current and former employees. In the employment law arena, plaintiffs usually rely upon Title I of the ADA, which specifically prohibits employment discrimination based on a persons’ disability. 42 U.S.C. 12112(a). Government employees, however, sometimes rely upon Title II of the ADA when filing suit...

Kollman & Saucier

11/18/2013

Age Discrimination, Disability & Leave, FMLA

In Owens v. Calhoun County School District, No. 12-60897 (Oct. 8, 2013), the Fifth Circuit upheld a district court’s granting of summary judgment to an employer on a former employee’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claim. Karen Darlene Mann Owens taught at Bruce Upper Elementary School in Mississippi for seventeen years until she was fired in February 2010. Owens suffered from neck and back pain, conditions which worsened over the...

Kollman & Saucier

11/15/2013

Disability & Leave

It seems like even the most minor ailment can make an employee “disabled” under the ADA these days. For example, in 2010, the City of Detroit paid $100,000 to settle an accommodation claim raised by a “chemically sensitive” city worker who alleged that a coworker’s perfume and room deodorizer caused her to experience migraines, nausea and coughing. McBride v. City of Detroit, No. 2:07-cv-12794 (E.D. Mich. 2010). Last week, an...

Kollman & Saucier

11/14/2013

Wage & Hour

Over the past few years, employers have been besieged by "collective actions" filed under federal and state wage and hour laws. These lawsuits aggregate individual claims for unpaid overtime into class actions, thereby making it much more lucrative for a plaintiff's attorney to invest the time and effort into pursuing the case. In Jones v. Xerox Commercial Solutions, LLC, No. 4:13-cv-650 (S.D. Tex., November 6, 2013), a federal court in Texas...

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Weight Watchers Thrown for a Loss in EEOC Lawsuit

Appellate Court Reverses NLRB and Upholds Legality of Class Action Waivers

Supreme Court to Decide ACA Contraceptive Mandate Issue

Employee Who Was Repeatedly Sniffed by Co-Workers and Fired For Swatting a Fly May Bring Retaliation Claim

No Sex Harassment Liability When Female Prison Guard Exposed to Prisoners' Display of Sexual Materials

Appellate Court Rejects Use of Title II of the ADA to Sue for Discrimination In Public Employment

Exhaustion of FMLA Leave with No Return Date Dooms Plaintiff’s Claims

Court Finds Odor Sensitivity May Be Disability under ADAAA

Texas Court Strikes Down FLSA Collective Action

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