Stay current on the latest Firm news and developments in employment law
Racist jokes supported a verdict against the employer in a race-based hostile work environment claim under Section 1981, along with an award of compensatory and punitive damages, but judge knew better than jury what the damages should have been. A tale of Fulmore v M & M Transport Services, Inc...
First, understand that you did the right thing. You were correct to complain because sexual harassment at work is illegal. Under the law, you also had a duty to complain so that the employer could investigate and hopefully put an end to the sexual harassment. Unfortunately, your employer fired...
To the Women of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: My name is Patrick Toomey and I am your United States Senator from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Here I am in my best charcoal gray and red tie. I am pointing because I am a serious man, and behind me is...
Why do the five ultra-conservative members of the Supreme Court - Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito - seek to undermine the United States' Civil Rights Laws at every opportunity? Because those laws conflict with their right wing ideologies. And once again, Congress is being called on to...
The EEOC [1] has launched a massive lawsuit against CVS Caremark, the nation's second largest drugstore chain, for requiring employees to sign overbroad, misleading severance agreements that interfere with the rights to file charges of discrimination and participate in proceedings to enforce the...
From the very first sentence of the Hon. Mark R. Hornak's opinion in McClung et al. v. Songer Steel Services, Inc., No. 12-341, 2014 WL 793133 (W.D.Pa.), the reader knew they were in for a special treat: "In this race discrimination suit, claims based solely on permissible inferences square off...
Philadelphia sports bar and restaurant chain Chickie's & Pete's has signed a consent judgment agreeing to pay current and former employees more than $6.8 million in back wages and damages for improperly taking tips from servers and violating federal minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping...
When it changed its rules last November, the Senate ushered in a new era of opportunity for judicial nominations. Now that only a simple majority is required to break filibusters on district and circuit court nominations, the time is ripe to fill a growing a number of judicial vacancies with...
When the Equal Pay Act became law in 1963, women were earning 59 cents on the dollar compared to men. Today, while women hold nearly half of all jobs, and generate a significant portion of the income that sustains their families, they still face a gap in pay compared to men's wages for similar...
A judicial oversight body which found hundreds of biased, racist and sexist emails authored by a sitting United States District Court Judge would have let the judge remain on the court and continue to hear cases, despite his admitted political bias, racist and sexist views. Montana's chief...
Following a new national report revealing that pregnant women face significant barriers in the workplace, the City of Philadelphia passed new legislation that will improve workplace conditions for pregnant employees. The new amendment to the City's Fair Practices Ordinance prohibits...
On August 27, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced a Final Rule that makes changes to the regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Section 503) at 41 CFR Part 60-741. Section 503 prohibits federal...
One popular myth is that raising the minimum wage hurts the economy. Seventy-five years of empirical data has busted that myth wide open. Since 1938, the minimum wage has been raised several times yet the economy has grown and grown. Raising the minimum wage creates purchasing power for wage...
Employees have a right to oppose discrimination and unlawful wage practices in the workplace, to assist others in enforcing their rights to overtime pay, to the minimum wage and to freedom from discrimination, and to participate in any manner proceedings, hearings or investigations under the...
In posts earlier this year - Now Hiring (unless you have poor credit) and More on Employer's Use of Credit Reports - we called attention to employers who abuse credit reports to disqualify applicants and employees from employment. Senator Elizabeth Warren has now introduced legislation to...