By: Megan J. Muoio, June 2, 2017 On March 27, 2017, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided in favor of the plaintiff in Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., a case involving the issue of sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Christiansen, a gay employee brought a suit against his employer under the sex discrimination provision of Title VII. The employer moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination…

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  By: Megan J. Muoio, April 3, 2017 On March 27, 2017, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided the case of Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., an appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Second Circuit reinstated the plaintiff’s claim for gender stereotyping under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but declined to overturn earlier precedent about sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII. A strong concurrence by two…

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By: Megan J. Muoio, March 6, 2017 The Supreme Court announced last week that it will hear the matter of Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago during its October 2017 session. The case comes to the Supreme Court on appeal from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals which, plaintiff has argued, issued a decision contrary to the Supreme Court’s precedents when it dismissed her appeal despite an extension of time granted by U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo. Plaintiff Charmaine Hamer was formerly an intake specialist for Neighborhood…

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By: Megan J. Muoio, October 31, 2016 On October 25, 2016, the White House issued a “call to action” to states regarding non-compete agreements. The call to action was the result of the White House’s May 2016 analysis of the usage, potential issues, and state responses to the implementation of non-compete agreements by private employers, which was based on a report from the United States Treasury Office of Economic Policy regarding the economic impact of the use of non-compete agreements on the labor market and the U.S. economy…

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By: Megan J. Muoio, May 26, 2016 On May 18, 2016, President Barack Obama announced that the Department of Labor will be finalizing a new rule expanding the payment of overtime wages to a larger class of workers who are not currently eligible for overtime pay under federal law. The aim of the rule change, according to the Obama Administration, is the expansion of overtime protections and the boosting of wages for middle class workers. However, the rule change may have different results. Currently, hourly workers are entitled…

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  By: Megan J. Muoio, March 7, 2016 Currently pending before the Supreme Court is Green v. Brennan, a case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that involves the question of when 45-day period to file a claim of constructive discharge as a result of racial discrimination begins to run. The case was argued before the Supreme Court on November 30, 2016. A decision is expected sometime this spring. The appellant Marvin Green was employed by the United States Postal Service as the postmaster…

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By: Megan J. Muoio, November 25, 2015 On October 21, 2015, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding that two employees were improperly fired because of negative discussion of their employer on the social media site Facebook. The employees were non-union employees at the Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille located in Watertown, Connecticut. In the case before the NLRB, Three D, LLC (Triple Play) was found to have illegally fired two employees in connection with Facebook complaints…

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By: Megan J. Muoio, October 19, 2015 On September 19, 2015, three trade groups representing the home care industry filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, seeking a stay of rules implemented by the Department of Labor (DOL). Those rules require home care workers who are employees of a business or outside provider to be paid minimum wages and overtime pay. Those employees, as well as home care providers hired directly by the person being served or someone on their behalf, had long been exempt from minimum…

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  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…

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By: Megan J. Muoio, May 29, 2015 The issue of the minimum wage – whether it should be increased, how, and whether increases should be centered on workers in specific industries – has been in the news lately.  In this blog post, several recent developments in the area of the minimum wage in California, New York, and New Jersey will be discussed. A New Minimum Wage for California? In California, a state-wide ballot measure aims to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2021. The ballot measure is…

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