Labor & Employment Law Update

In an unprecedented fashion, an arbitrator recently issued an award limiting the scope of Public Act 095-0490, otherwise known as the Substitutes Act. In doing so, the City of Mattoon successfully fought, through Amundsen Davis attorneys Julie Proscia and Carlos Arévalo, and won the right to close their ambulance service. So why is this award important? This award now serves as a basis for municipalities to be able to have the autonomy to review their scope of services and determine which services are best for their community as opposed to the scope of services being dictated by ...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning that employers can enforce class action waivers included in employment-related arbitration agreements. An arbitration agreement is a contract through which an employee and an employer agree in advance to resolve any disputes that may arise through binding arbitration rather than in court. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether an employer could enforce an arbitration agreement provision requiring each employee to arbitrate his or her disputes individually rather than collectively or as part of a class action. The Court ruled ...

Last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion that provides a helpful reminder about the extent to which an employer may ask an employee to work during a leave taken under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

In D’Onofrio v. Vacation Publications, Inc., a sales representative requested FMLA leave to care for her husband, who had suffered a major back injury. Her employer gave her two options – she could either go on unpaid leave or she could log on remotely a few times per week during her leave in order to service her existing accounts and keep her ...

At age 58, Dale Kleber was an out of work experienced attorney searching for full-time employment. He applied for a position as a “Senior Counsel, Procedural Solutions” that required the ability to assume complex business projects. The position description also stated that applicants must have at least 3 years but no more than 7 years of relevant legal experience. Kleber had more than 7 years of experience and he was not selected for the position. The employer filled the position with a 29-year-old applicant.

Kleber sued under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA ...

YouTube’s experience on April 3, 2018, in which a non-employee with no direct link to the company entered the workplace and started shooting a firearm at employees, highlighted concern for an “active shooter” scenario in the workplace.

As a result of increased gun violence, state legislatures have been pushing gun control legislation, including laws that would ban bump stocks and high capacity magazines, raise the minimum age to buy a gun to 21, or even ban people from carrying, keeping, bearing, transporting or possessing an assault weapon. Some proposed legislation is not ...

On April 12, 2018, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued an opinion letter addressing the intersection between the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when an employee needs multiple rest breaks throughout the day due to an FMLA covered serious health condition.

Background

The FLSA generally requires employers to compensate employees for all time spent working. Although the Act does not require employers to provide rest or meal breaks, it does regulate whether such breaks—if provided by the employer—must be paid as compensable ...

Unless we have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, it is likely that we may have wondered if former FBI Director James Comey could sue President Trump for defamation. Indeed, President Obama’s former Ethics Chief, Norm Eisen, recently tweeted that the president’s “false, malicious accusation of criminal conduct is libel [published defamation] per se by Trump. @Comey could sue-& might win…”  Without weighing in on the viability of such a claim, however, it is prudent to review a few defamation principles to keep in mind.

Acknowledging that laws vary from ...

The Equal Pay Act can create significant exposure for employers, if not considered when setting female employees’ wages – especially if you are relying upon a female applicant’s prior salary history and there is a difference in the pay of similar male employees.

The Equal Pay Act is dangerous for employers because plaintiffs are not required to prove discriminatory intent by the employer. All a plaintiff must show is that there is a wage disparity for equal work requiring the same skill, effort and responsibility, which is performed under similar working conditions. Once a ...

In April 2018, the US Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division, launched  the six-month pilot Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program which provides a voluntary framework for employers to self-report potential FLSA overtime and minimum wage violations to the DOL and to resolve those violations without incurring additional penalties or liquidated damages. There are important benefits (and potential risks) to consider before signing up for PAID:

• The benefit of the program is that if an employer self-reports, the DOL will only require the employer to pay back ...

On April 2, 2018 in the matter of Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, No. 16-1362, 2018 WL 1568025 (U.S. Apr. 2, 2018), the Supreme Court rejected the long held principle that exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) should be construed narrowly and found that car dealership service advisors are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime-pay requirement. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held there was no reason or basis under the FLSA to narrowly interpret FLSA exemptions and that exemptions should be read equally as any other provision of the Act.

Impact – Car dealerships can ...