Employment Class & Collective Actions

With multiple avenues for expanding a family and a plethora of different family models, employers would be wise to re-consider their parental leave policies to suit the needs of the modern family.

In May, a large multi-national corporation settled a class action lawsuit regarding its parental leave policy for $5 million. As written, the employer’s policy gave its employees who were primary care-givers 16 weeks of paid leave, and gave its employees who were non-primary care-givers only 2 weeks of paid leave. According to the lawsuit, the employer had an unwritten policy that made it almost impossible for men to qualify as a primary caregiver unless the birth mother was unable to care for the baby because she was medically incapable or because she was back at work. Such a policy, even if unwritten, could violate federal and state laws that prohibit employers from making employment decisions on the basis of sex.
Continue Reading Employers should review their parental leave policies in wake of parental leave class action settlement

On Aug. 15, 2018, the Sixth Circuit in Gaffers v. Kelly Services, Inc. held that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not render an arbitration agreement that requires claims to be brought individually illegal and unenforceable. Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, which held that a federal statute does not displace the Arbitration Act unless it includes a “clear and manifest” congressional intent to make individual arbitration agreements unenforceable, the court rejected the plaintiff’s arguments that FLSA displaced the Federal Arbitration Act simply by providing for a right to “collective action.” Instead, the Sixth Circuit, consistent with Epic, held that the FLSA “gives employees the option to bring their claims together. It does not require employees to vindicate their rights in a collective action, and it does not say that agreements requiring on-on-one arbitration become a nullity if an employee decides that he wants to sue collectively after signing one.” The Sixth Circuit then went on to reject the plaintiff’s next argument that the Arbitration Act’s savings clause permitted the court to refuse to enforce the individual arbitration agreements because they are “illegal” under the FLSA based on Epic.
Continue Reading Sixth Circuit upholds agreement to arbitrate FLSA claims on individual basis

On Monday, May 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that employers may require workers to accept individual arbitration for wage and hour and other workplace disputes rather than banding together to pursue their claims in class actions in federal or state courts. The Court’s decision in Lewis v. Epic Sys. Corp. overturns the position of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and resolves a split among federal courts of appeals. The case is one of the most important employment law cases to be decided by the Supreme Court in the past decade and could affect millions of U.S. workers and their employers.
Continue Reading U.S. Supreme Court rules that mandatory, individual arbitration of employment disputes trumps employees’ rights to participate in class action lawsuits

Well known asset management company State Street Corporation will pay $5 million to settle allegations of pay inequity raised by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in an audit. OFFCP alleged that the company paid female executives less than men and black executives less than whites at its Boston headquarters. The landmark settlement agreement is the largest back pay settlement collected by OFCCP since 2015.

By way of background, OFCCP audits federal contractors and subcontractors for compliance with workplace affirmative action and nondiscrimination requirements. OFCCP conducted a compensation analysis of State Street’s downtown Boston office in December 2012. According to OFFCP, that analysis revealed that, since at least December 2010, there were “statistically significant” disparities in compensation between male and female workers and black and white workers even when “legitimate factors affecting pay” such as performance, experience and education were taken into account.
Continue Reading The OFCCP strikes, puts State Street’s pay inequity problem out on Front Street

Apple, Adobe, Google, and Intel had a $415 million settlement approved last week to settle the terms of a lawsuit brought by software engineers alleging that the companies had violated wage and anti-trust laws by agreeing not to recruit or “poach” each other’s employees.

The case began in 2009 when the U.S. Department of Justice

It is summer, and you know what that means: teenagers, everywhere. And they are not just hanging out at the mall, they are working at the mall, at the local pool, and in other entry-level positions. Unlike other workers, however, teenagers come with their own special set of complications. Generational issues aside, the real concern for employers with employment of minors is complying with federal and state laws specific to employment of minors.

Hiring

Before hiring minors, each employer should verify whether it can hire minor employees in the industry in which the employer operates and the state in which the business is located. Many states, including Ohio, require that an employer first obtain some type of work permit before hiring minors. Under Ohio law, every minor 14 through 17 years of age must have a working permit unless otherwise exempted, e.g., 16 and 17 year olds who only work during the summer in nonagricultural and nonhazardous employment. R.C. § 4109.02.

There are, however, some occupations deemed too hazardous for minors. In Ohio, they include the following:
Continue Reading Hiring minors: Not my teenage dream

Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination and/or harassment on the basis of religion. This means that an employer cannot treat persons of different religions differently or appear to favor one religion over another. As such, employers should be mindful of varying cultural differences among their employees. While their are not as many religious holidays during

One issue that comes up for many employers in the summer is hiring seasonal workers. Hiring temporary seasonal employees presents some substantial legal traps for the unwary. Employers should assess their seasonal hiring practices to ensure compliance with various state and federal laws. In other posts, we advised you on the issues in hiring interns

We have reported on a federal court’s rulings related to plaintiff’s efforts in Mark v. Gawker Media LLC (S.D.N.Y.) to use social media to notify potential class action members here and here. On April 10 the court held that the class plaintiffs, former interns for the website Gawker, can use social media to notify