One Prediction That Had Some Legs

Forecasting is an art not a science, and truth be known luck is probably the most single important factor if one gets it right, still I coul...

Why Employers Don't Like Statutes Creating Causes of Action

One of the responses by the employer community to almost any proposed statutory cause of action is not that it supports employers who engage...

The 9th Circuit Does Their Part On Oracle Case, Extending California Labor Laws

One of the issues that I think has the potential to cause a lot of trouble for employers is the application of one state's labor and emp...

The Law of Unintended Consequences: Immigration and E-Verify

A recent article in Businesweek, A Verification System for New Hires Backfires makes clear just how complex the immigration issue is. The s...

Missed This New Jersey MDV the First Time Around

I was in Lubbock yesterday talking to their SHRM chapter about retaliation and the dangers of those cases, along with its first cousin whist...

A Timely Follow Up -- The Importance of Action Not Words

Given the topic of my previous post  --- the need for employers to step up and make sure they dealt with bullying behavior rather than leavi...

Giving Aid to the Enemy: The Healthy Workplace Act Explained

David Yamada who posts at Minding the Workplace is also the author of a model bill, The Healthy Workplace Act (HWB), designed to address bul...

Disparate Impact and the Non-Traditional Plaintiff

At the start of the year, I noted that one thing that seemed to be a "trend" was litigation by non-minority plaintiffs. See, 2011 ...

Maybe Not So Ho Hum at the Supreme Court: FLSA and Wal-Mart v. Dukes

In addition to denying cert on the USERRA hostile environment case (see yesterday's post ), the Supreme Court yesterday also reversed an...

First Monday in October - Ho Hum for L&E Types

Tomorrow marks the start of the Supreme Court's new term, and at least for private sector Labor and Employment types, there's not a ...

Workplace Violence Gains Formal OSHA Investigation Procedures

On September 8, OSHA issued  Directive CPL 02-01-052 , which for the first time establishes procedures for investigating workplace violence ...

ADA Cases Are No Longer Unwelcome in Plaintiff Counsel's Offices

Lynne Seabrook was working as an assistant registrar for Upper Iowa University focusing on its Malaysia campus when she was terminated in Fe...

Suit By EEOC Not Covered Under EPLI Policy

It probably seemed like such a simple proposition. EEOC sues employer for sexual and racial harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation a...

Federal/State Cooperation on Independent Contractor Issue

It does not seem very often that any headline that involves government can properly use cooperation these days, but yesterday's story on...

Fact Checking Me -- Congressional Rollbacks of Pro-employee Legislation

Three times a year, my good friend Connie Cornell and I give a presentation called Essential Employment Law for our law school alma mater...

Bullying Litigation -- Not in the Workplace Yet

It's been awhile since I posted on bullying, but an article earlier this week in the Law Blog of the WSJ reminded me the topic is not go...

Coming to a Bulletin Board Near You on November 14th, Or Maybe Not ...

On planning committees for seminars, one topic that inevitably gets discussed is that we need to cover some traditional labor law. Almost in...

Labor Day, A Day After - Should We Put This To A Vote?

Any thoughts on how the following legislative finding might fare in today's Congress? It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Unit...

More Things I Have Learned Recently: Virtual Polygraphy

Nothing says you are on top of things like keeping up on your jargon, so I was grateful to Chris Pentilla, otherwise known as the Workplace ...

Blogging As a Habit, Or Not

When I started this little venture more than nine years ago now, I knew nothing about blogging. Almost a decade later I now know more, but I...

Making Government a Little Less Bothersome - Here May Be an Opportunity

In a May address to the American Enterprise Institute, Cass Sunstein of Nudge fame, and also the administrative czar of the the Obama admi...

A Reminder to Trial Lawyers -- As If We Needed It

Not only to trial lawyers, but their clients, when wondering what can happen in a jury trial, to the name OJ Simpson, you can now add Casey ...

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Duke -- A Sigh of Relief

Analysis will come later as all I have done is read the highlight and the line up of  judges. Judge Scalia's majority opinion was joined...

While I Am in the Land of Aloha, the Legislature Permits Guns on Employer Parking Lots Premises

I am vacationing on the Garden Island, but taking some time tonite to catch up on what's been going on. When I left Texas the legislatur...

Arizona Immigration Law Valid According to Divided Supreme Court

To the political bonfire of illegal immigration, the U.S. Supreme Court has just dumped several gallons of petrol, with its decision upholdi...

DOL Help for Employer On OSHA Reporting

Last week I posted about DOL's new app for employees to keep records of their hours worked, so to be fair, the DOL does not limit its c...

Legislative Override of Supreme Court

What a difference three years makes. Unlike the opening weeks of the prior Congress when it could not act fast enough to get the reversal of...

Now an iPhone App for Wage and Hour Litigation

This is clearly a first for this blog. A link to the apple app store. But when the Department of Labor releases an app for iPhone, iPod and ...

Arbitration As Protection Against Class Actions

Today the Supreme Court gave a powerful tool for employers to avoid collective and class actions when it overturned the 9th Circuit's de...

Arbitration (Awards) Not Necessarily Private in Texas

Thanks to Professor Ross Runkel for calling my attention to a case decided in my own backyard, McAfee, Inc. v. Weiss , (Tx. App. - Dallas 3....

With a Friend Like Justice Scalia ... Cat's Paw Decision Not Very Employer Friendly

Although viewed as one of THE most conservative justices, I am not sure anyone who is very knowledgeable about employment law relishes the i...

Checking Out the Judge's Family

Since in employment law we routinely deal with cases involving gender, this bit of social science reported on in The Volokh Conspiracy, migh...

There's That Word Again - Bully

Hat tip to the folks at the Daily Labor Report, who found a case that will fold into my presentation that I will be giving at the 2011 Gulf ...

Kansas City Verdict - Another Successful "Reverse Discrimination" Claim

Earlier this month I commented that one trend we might see this year was more "reverse discrimination" claims. See, 2011 -- the Ye...

MMA Body Slam of $3.2 Million

$3.2 million is the total jury award to former Tapou T sales representative, Michelle Thomas, from a Los Angeles state jury. The jury first ...

Retaliation in the Supreme Court - Danger Zone for Employers

If there is one area of Supreme Court jurisprudence that employees can certainly not complain about it is the law of retaliation Today's...

A Ray of Sanity in the FLSA Collective Action Morass: Half-pay in Misclassification Cases

Given the overwhelming number of FLSA collective actions that continue to be filed, it is hard to find very much encouraging news, but one r...

Is Retaliation for Complaining About Sexual Orientation Discrimination a Violation of Title VII?

The headline in today's Daily Labor Report caught my attention, Court Revives Fired Gay Employee's Retaliation, Harassment Claims   ...