I have previously written about joint employers. See my posts here and here. TheTrump administration tried to make it harder to show a joint employer relationship. It adopted an interpretive regulation which the DOL thought would make it harder to prove joint employers. But, the court in State of New York v. Scalia,
Employers, if they are doing their job, should counsel an employee in writing for a serious offense. Part of that counseling is the need to verify that the employee has received the written warning and understands it. That is why the employer will ask the employee to sign the disciplinary warning. Signing does *not* mean
One of the wonderful things about employment law is that employers have several ways to avoid liability for "stupid" things management might do. One big tool in the employer’s arsenal is the prompt remedial action. If an employee complains about harassment, the employer can investigate and then take "prompt remedial" action. If the employer does
Settling a discrimination lawsuit is never easy. The employee and employer both have to develop some understanding of evidentiary issues, personnel issues and employment caselaw within a very short amount of time. I have discussed settlement before, here, and here. The client must also come to some understanding of the opposing side
Minnesota Labor & Employment Law Blog discusses how an employer can mess up an employment case. In Hamm v. Minnesota, the state eventually agreed to pay Hamm $250,000 to settle her claims. The law firm at Minnseota Labor & Employment Law discusses the things the employer did wrong: accusing Hamm of transgressions that by their
My friend Gene Lee wrote a good post about how long discrimination lawsuits can take. He refers to statistics showing that from start to finish, the average lawsuit will take 22 months. That sounds about right for the San Antonio area, also. Here in South Texas, we can file the typical discrimination lawsuit in state
According to a recent study by Manpower and Jury Verdict Research, employers won only 39% of jury cases in the past year, tied for the lowest percentage in this decade. The lowest win rate was 33% for age cases and the highest win rate for employers was disability cases with 52%. The median settlement amount
Employer Support of the Guard/Reserve (ESGR) sends out a DVD to help employers mange their Reserve/Guard employees. Having served some 25 years in the Guard/Reserve, I am very familiar with ESGR. They did well for a Guard colleague some ten years ago. The colleague returned to his civilian job from a US Army school, but
Personal emails at work are sometimes protected from intrusion and sometimes not. The email system belongs to the employer. One indicator that work generated emails may be protected occurs when the employer allows some personal use of email. See the case discussed at one blog post. But, see another case discussed at a different
In a recent decision, a federal court in California found it unlawful for an employer to monitor an employee’s key strokes in order to obtain his password to a personal email account. The U.S. district court found this action violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986. The decision, Brahmana v. Lembo