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

Supreme Court Set to Clarify Issues Surrounding Vesting of Retiree Health Benefits

Kollman & Saucier

11/14/2014

Employee Benefits, Supreme Court Decisions

On November 10, 2014, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, a case that has the potential to reshape significantly the legal landscape of retiree health benefit provisions in collective bargaining agreements (CBA). At issue is the legal framework courts should apply when faced with CBA retiree health benefit cases. There is currently a wide split among several federal circuits on the issue. On the...

Kollman & Saucier

11/11/2014

Employment Discrimination

There is no substitute for effective communication. In Fong v. School Board of Palm Beach County, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit again proved this lesson by upholding a school board’s decision to terminate one of its teachers in part because of her thick accent when speaking English. Ms. Jianxin Fong worked as a math teacher at Boynton Beach High School. Two years after her hiring, in 2008-09, the Palm Beach County School Board...

Kollman & Saucier

11/07/2014

Class Actions, State Law, Wage & Hour

On October 30, 2014, a Colorado federal court judge granted final approval of a $ 2.3 million settlement between the “Everything’s a Dollar” retail giant and a class of 488 current and former store managers who claimed they were misclassified as exempt employees and denied overtime pay in violation of state law. Under Colorado law, executive or supervisory employees are exempt from overtime pay if they supervise two or more full-time...

Kollman & Saucier

11/05/2014

Public Sector Employment Law, Supreme Court Decisions

On November 3, 2014, the United States Supreme Court denied Baltimore County’s petition for review of the Fourth Circuit’s decision which held Baltimore County’s retirement plan violated the ADEA. Balt. Cnty. v. EEOC, No. 14-7, cert. denied 11/3/14. In 1945, Baltimore County established a retirement plan for its employees. The plan provided that employees could retire and receive pension benefits at age 65, regardless of their length of...

Kollman & Saucier

10/31/2014

Pregnancy Discrimination, Supreme Court Decisions

In advance of the Supreme Court's oral argument on a former employee's pregnancy discrimination case (Young v. UPS, Inc., U.S. No. 12-1226), United Parcel Service (UPS) has announced that, effective, January 1, 2015, it will make light duty available to pregnant workers with lifting or other restrictions on the same level as it offers to employees who need light duty because of worker's compensation injuries. In explaining this change in protocol,...

Kollman & Saucier

10/28/2014

State Law, Voting Leave

Next Tuesday, November 4, 2014, many states will be conducting their respective gubernatorial and other elections. In anticipation of Election Day, employers should review their policies and procedures to ensure employees are provided proper time off to vote, as may be required by applicable law, as well as by stated policy. While some states do not mandate time off for voting (including the District of Columbia, Delaware, New Jersey,...

Kollman & Saucier

10/23/2014

Wage & Hour

A former NCAA Division I soccer player at the University of Houston has filed a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action on behalf of herself and other Division I student-athletes. Samantha Sackos sued the NCAA and all of the NCAA Division I member schools, and claims that she should have been classified as a temporary employee of the schools as opposed to an uncompensated student-athlete. The lawsuit, filed this past Monday, can be found...

Kollman & Saucier

10/22/2014

Wage & Hour

Maryland’s federal court recently permitted a collective action brought pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to proceed to trial. In Butler, et al. v. Directsat USA, LLC, et. al. Jeffrey Butler filed suit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated satellite installation technicians pursuant to the FLSA, as well as Maryland’s Wage and Hour Law, Maryland’s Wage Payment and Collection Law and the District of Columbia’s Minimum...

Kollman & Saucier

10/16/2014

Age Discrimination, Public Sector Employment Law

A federal court ruled that a Pennsylvania state court that allegedly fired an employee because of her age does not have 11th Amendment immunity to avoid a lawsuit on the fired employee's behalf brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. EEOC v. Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny Cnty., No. 14-899 (W.D. Pa., Oct. 15, 2014). In February 2012, a staffing agency assigned 70 year old Carolyn...

Kollman & Saucier

10/13/2014

Employment Discrimination

An allegedly sexually harassed terminated employee completed her EEOC questionnaire in April 2011, but did not file a charge of discrimination under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (“TCHRA”) until she was fired in October 2011. Because the last alleged harassment incident occurred in December 2010, she failed to file the charge within the TCHRA’s 180-day deadline. Lawson v. Parker Hannifin Corp., 4:13-cv-00923 (N.D. Tex., Oct. 19,...

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Supreme Court Set to Clarify Issues Surrounding Vesting of Retiree Health Benefits

Math Teacher’s Accent-Based Claims of National Origin Discrimination Don’t Add Up

More Than A Dollar: $2.3 Million Settlement Between Family Dollar Stores And Nearly 500 Employees

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Baltimore County Pension Case

UPS To Deliver Light Duty To Pregnant Employees

Election Day Obligations

If You Play Me, You Gotta' Pay Me: NCAA Student-Athletes File FLSA Suit

Maryland Court Allows Satellite TV Installers Wage & Hours Claims to Proceed

EEOC May Sue State Court for Discrimination in Federal Court

Texas Court Rules That Completing EEOC Questionnaire Does Not Count as Filing a Charge

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