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

Wells Fargo Learns That Hiring Matters Too

Frank Kollman

10/22/2019

The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a conciliation agreement with Wells Fargo & Co. to settle allegations that it discriminated in hiring on the basis of sex and race. The Office of Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) found that Wells Fargo (a federal contractor) had discriminated against 2,066 female applicants for positions as online customer service representatives in Glen Allen, Virginia, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and 282...

Frank Kollman

10/21/2019

Agency Activity, Wage & Hour

The wage and hour laws are complicated, and rarely intuitive. Technical violations of wage and hour laws are so common that no company can be absolutely positive that it is complying with all Department of Labor regulations, and the laws and regulations of states and local jurisdictions. In fact, these laws and regulations are so complicated that even the investigators hired to enforce them often interpret them incorrectly. There are statutes,...

Kollman & Saucier

10/18/2019

Labor Law

As you may recall, under President Obama's National Labor Relations Board, seemingly innocuous work rules set forth in employee handbooks were routinely struck down as violating Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. The pendulum has swung the other way under President Trump's NLRB, as is shown by the Board's recent decision in LA Specialty Produce Company, No. 32-CA-207919 (10/10/19). The case concerned two rules that...

Frank Kollman

10/17/2019

Workplace Safety

In 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration adopted new weighted inspection rules to access its enforcement activity. In the past, OSHA measured the effectiveness of its enforcement programs by counting the total number of inspections without regard to the type of inspection. In other words, OSHA gave itself credit for effective enforcement by equating an inspection of a complaint about "strange smells" emanating from a nearby...

Kollman & Saucier

10/16/2019

Employment Discrimination, Race Discrimination

Job descriptions are important tools in a variety of ways. What an employer puts (or doesn’t put) on a job description can make a big difference when defending an employment action down the line. For one, a job description can help employers satisfy ADA obligations by properly identifying a job’s essential functions and distinguishing them from the job’s marginal functions. This is because the ADA generally protects qualified...

Kollman & Saucier

10/15/2019

Disability & Leave

Employers may wish to avoid learning the details about their employees’ medical conditions. But trying to avoid such knowledge does not necessarily absolve employers of applicable reasonable accommodation obligations under the ADA. A recent case out of the Eighth Circuit demonstrates the importance of engaging in the interactive process when an employee asks for an accommodation. Garrison v. Dolgencorp, LLC, No. 18-1066 (8th Cir....

Kollman & Saucier

10/14/2019

Disability & Leave

Last week, the Supreme Court denied Domino’s Pizza's request to review a Ninth Circuit decision, Robles v. Domino's Pizza, LLC, No. 17-55504 (1/15/19), that holds the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires stores and other businesses to make online services accessible to disabled persons. The decision (or lack of) returns the case to a California federal court for a decision on the merits. The lawsuit was originally filed by Guillermo...

Kollman & Saucier

10/11/2019

Supreme Court Decisions

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three soon-to-be landmark cases concerning LGBTQ rights under Title VII: Bostock v. Clayton County (No. 17-1618); Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda (No. 17-1623); and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. EEOC (18-107). Bostock and Zarda concern whether sexual orientation is protected under Title VII, while R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes questions whether Title VII...

Kollman & Saucier

10/09/2019

Disability & Leave

How should an employer react when its employee reports needing time off to care for a sick or disabled relative or friend? The Second Circuit recently weighed in on an ADA associational discrimination claim arising in part from an employer’s denial of a former employee’s schedule modification request to care for his disabled daughter. Kelleher v. Fred A. Cook, Inc., No. 18-2385 (2d Cir. 9/24/19). John Kelleher began working for...

Frank Kollman

10/08/2019

Arbitration

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review a decision of the Ninth Circuit (http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/12/04/16-16363.pdf) allowing an arbitrator to alter the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, despite contract language saying that the arbitrator could not alter the agreement in any way. ASARCO v. Steelworkers , No. 18-1415, Cert denied 10/7/19....

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Email Updates

Wells Fargo Learns That Hiring Matters Too

Tell Us About Bad Wage and Hour Investigators Says Head of Wage and Hour Division

NLRB Finds Confidentiality and Media Contact Rules Lawful

OSHA's New Weighted Inspection Rules Go Into Effect

Employer's Departure from Job Description Can Be Evidence of Pretext

Eighth Circuit Says Employee Not Required to Use "Magic Words" When Requesting Accomodation

SCOTUS Denies Review of Domino’s Website Accessibility

Supreme Court Hears Arguments In LGBTQ-Title VII Cases

Second Circuit Offers Guidance on Associational Discrimination

Arbitrators Take One More Step Toward Infallibility

Email Updates