Paula Lopez, September 29, 2016. On September 25, 2016, California Governor, Jerry Brown, signed into law legislation that voids contract provisions in any agreement entered into between an employer and a California resident that requires, as a condition of employment, that an employee agree to have disputes adjudicated (includes litigation and arbitration) outside of California and under the laws of another state. The law, known as Senate Bill 1241[1], will apply to contracts entered into, modified or extended on or after January 1, 2017.  Key provisions of the…

Share

  By: Megan J. Muoio, August 26, 2015 On August 17, 2015, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision reversing the March 26, 2014 decision of NLRB Regional Director Peter Sung Ohr, which found that Northwestern University scholarship football players are employees as defined by the National Labor Relations Act. Eighteen months after the decision by the Regional Director, the NLRB dealt a blow to the Northwestern players’ quest to unionize and be recognized as employees under the National Labor Relations Act. Northwestern University is one of…

Share

Nicholas Fortuna, June 17, 2015. The Supreme Court will take another stab at defining the limits of class actions in the employment setting. On June 8, 2015 the Court granted review certification of a class of more than 3000 Iowa meat-processing employees on their wage and hour claims that resulted in a jury award of nearly $5.8 million in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo. The justices will consider the Eighth Circuit’s 2-1 decision that the district court did not abuse its discretion by certifying the workers’ collective and…

Share

Diana Uhimov, April 20, 2015. After an initial denial, a New York federal judge for the Southern District of New York granted permission last week to a group of former Gawker Media LLC interns’ to notify potential class members of a proposed action through social media, namely Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  The judge limited the approval by finding that “friending” class members on Facebook is too extreme.  The interns brought the proposed collective action, Mark et al. v. Gawker Media LLC et al., in 2013 under the Fair…

Share

Nicholas Fortuna, November 24, 2014. Claims that employers are not properly paying their employees for over-time or otherwise complying with federal and state wage and hour laws have risen to dizzying heights. The Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay employees over-time at the rate of one and one-half their regular hourly rate for each hour worked over 40 hours in a given week. In addition, an employee is entitled to an extra hour of pay for each day that employee works 10 or more hours…

Share