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Employment
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May 23, 2013
GOP Bill Would Ease Rules On Health Savings Accounts
Republicans in both houses of Congress on Thursday introduced legislation to significantly loosen rules on tax-advantaged health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts, a push that comes as employers' increasing use of high-deductible health insurance plans makes such arrangements more common.
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May 23, 2013
Cigna Gets Heart Device Coverage Fight Sent To Arbitration
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday dismissed a pair of cardiac telemetry makers' suit alleging Cigna Health Corp.'s decision to stop covering the device violates federal pension and unfair competition laws, finding the claims are subject to arbitration under each plaintiff's provider agreement with Cigna.
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May 23, 2013
House Dems Float Employee Social Media Privacy Bill
A pair of House Democrats on Wednesday unveiled the latest bill aimed at barring employers from demanding direct access to current and prospective employees’ password-protected accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
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May 23, 2013
Striking NYC Attys Union Hopeful As Talks Resume
A striking union of lawyers who represent low-income New York City residents in foreclosures, evictions, family court and bankruptcy court, among other places, expressed optimism Thursday that talks with Legal Services NYC executives set for Friday would bear fruit.
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May 23, 2013
Pa. AG Says No Master Needed In Judicial Retirement Suit
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General on Wednesday fired back at a petition seeking the appointment of a special master to gather evidence in a suit challenging a provision of the state constitution forcing judges into retirement after turning 70, arguing that the matter presented only questions of law.
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May 23, 2013
Canning Asks High Court To Back NLRB Appointment Ruling
Soda bottler Noel Canning told the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that it should uphold the D.C. Circuit's blockbuster ruling that three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional.
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May 23, 2013
Black Diamond Co-Founder Wins $6M Carried Interest Appeal
A Black Diamond Capital Management LLC co-founder can collect the final $6 million portion of the $17.5M in carried interest he earned there before he left to start another private equity firm, Z Capital Partners LLC, a New York appeals court ruled Thursday.
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May 23, 2013
9th Circ. Upsets Union's Win Against Idaho Right-To-Work Law
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday overturned a labor union's successful challenge to Idaho's recent expansion of its right-to-work law, ruling the district court needed to determine whether the state's attorney general had authority to enforce the statutes before the case could proceed.
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May 23, 2013
Fla. Airline Asks 11th Circ. To Exempt It From NLRB Probes
Florida-based cargo airline Amerijet International Inc. on Thursday asked the Eleventh Circuit to declare that the National Labor Relations Board does not have the jurisdiction to investigate an unfair labor practice charge because the airline falls under the Railway Labor Act.
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May 23, 2013
FDNY Union Can't Contest Driver Selection Change, Court Says
New York City's decision to de-emphasize seniority when choosing who could drive fire trucks isn't subject to collective bargaining, a New York state appeals court panel ruled Thursday, finding that the change was a management decision that the firefighters' union couldn't challenge.
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May 23, 2013
Safety Gear Isn't 'Clothes' Under FLSA, Unions Tell High Court
The Seventh Circuit adopted an overly broad view of what constitutes “clothes” under the Fair Labor Standards Act that erroneously included safety equipment when it nixed a putative donning-and-doffing collective action brought by U.S. Steel workers, the AFL-CIO told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
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May 23, 2013
Texas House Strongly Backs Unemployment Drug Testing Bill
The Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation that will require some unemployment benefit applicants to undergo drug testing before they receive assistance.
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May 23, 2013
Texas Senate Narrowly Approves Equal-Pay Bill
Texas lawmakers on Wednesday approved legislation aimed at bringing state law in line with the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extends the deadline for pursuing litigation over lower pay to women who perform the same work as more highly paid men.
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May 23, 2013
Aetna Wins NJ Surgical Center Coverage Row
Aetna Health Inc. on Wednesday defeated a lawsuit filed by an outpatient surgical center claiming the insurer's refusal to cover procedures violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, when a New Jersey federal judge ruled Aetna's decision was supported by substantial evidence.
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May 23, 2013
Security Guards Win Cert. In Meal-Break Wage Suit
A collective action against two D.C.-based security agencies won conditional certification Thursday after a Washington federal judge found that claims in the case were unified by an alleged unfair policy of deducting meal breaks from school security guards' paychecks.
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May 23, 2013
Q&A With Perkins Coie's Danielle Ryman
More trial courts need to hold lawyers accountable for compliance with procedural deadlines, and more appellate courts need to affirm decisions enforcing deadlines, says Danielle Ryman, a partner with Perkins Coie LLP, specializing in defense and representation of employers.
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May 22, 2013
NY Can't Dodge Judges' Suit Over Health Contribution Cuts
A New York judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a suit challenging a state law that reduced New York's contribution to the health insurance premiums of current and retired state judges, finding the judges had sufficiently alleged that the law imposes an unconstitutional decrease in judges' compensation.
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May 22, 2013
3 HR Lessons Employers Can Learn From Schools
As employers wrestle with how to prevent workplace violence, rein in supervisor bullies, and deter employees from using social media to post nasty comments about their co-workers or companies, lawyers say employers can find some much-needed guidance in the ways schools reduce liability risks related to similar problems with students.
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May 22, 2013
UBS Ruling Allays Fear Factor For SEC Whistleblowers
A New York federal court ruling Tuesday that keeps alive a UBS AG whistleblower’s retaliation suit marks a key victory for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it looks to make reporting Wall Street fraud less intimidating, attorneys say.
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May 22, 2013
Stradling Nabs Sheppard Mullin Labor Pro in Santa Barbara
Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth PC has added a former Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP partner specializing in labor and employment law as a shareholder at its Santa Barbara, Calif., office, the firm announced on Wednesday.
Expert Analysis
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High Court's Nassar Case — What's At Stake For Employers
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard argument for University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, and while the case seems promising for employers, it should also remind them that their best protection against retaliation claims will continue to be contemporaneous written evidence of a real reason for taking unfavorable actions against an employee, say attorneys with Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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NY Jumps On Domestic Violence Protection Bandwagon
In the last few years, there have been significant legal developments to increase protections for victims of domestic or sexual violence, including New York state's recently approved bill that provides 90 days of job protection to victim-employees. If the bill passes, New York legislation, along with that of Illinois and California, would provide arguably the most expansive state protection in the country, say attorneys with Proskauer Rose LLP.
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Calif. Moves Forward To Prevent Human Trafficking
In an effort to combat the $32 billion human trafficking industry, California law now requires certain businesses to post public notices regarding slavery and human trafficking. By doing so, the recently passed bill has effectively made these establishments aware that they may already be unwitting participants in the human trafficking industry, say attorneys with Gordon & Rees LLP.
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SEC Must Stop The Latest Effort To Impede Whistleblowers
Increasingly, employees have been presented with language in severance and settlement agreements that impose on whistleblowers a number of restrictions. These provisions pose a serious threat to the success of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower program, say David Marshall and Debra Katz of Katz Marshall & Banks LLP.
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What Sponsors Must Know About Litigation On Church Plans
Recently, two firms have filed class actions against three Catholic Church-affiliated health care facilities, claiming that their pension plans should be subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. These cases could have a profound effect on all church plan sponsors, regardless of whether they have previously obtained favorable church plan rulings, say attorneys with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.
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Independent Contractors Strike Out — Lessons For Employers
A lesser-known risk among companies that use independent contractor models is the threat of Title VII litigation, which two recent appellate court decisions, Allen v. Radio One and Alam v. Miller Brewing Company, addressed. These cases remind employers of the ways to minimize such litigation risks, such as adopting a policy to not rehire former employees terminated for misconduct, says Douglas Darch of Baker & McKenzie.
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Renovated: Fla. Rules On Design Professional Liability
A new Florida law will effectively permit business entities providing professional services to limit by contract the liability of their individual employees or agents. Attorneys with design professional clients — including architects, interior designers, landscape architects, engineers, surveyors and geologists — should expect requests for limitation of liability provisions in such contracts beginning July 1, 2013, say Keith Ramsey and Monte Starr of Holland & Knight LLP.
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Takeaways From Eddie Bauer's Recent Victory
Businesses tend to settle frivolous accessibility discrimination lawsuits brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Eddie Bauer LLC recently fought back, which turned out to be the right decision. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found in favor of the retailer on all claims and made significant rulings, providing useful support for other defendants who want to fight frivolous lawsuits, say attorneys with Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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E-Discovery In The Cloud: Who Can Get Your Data?
Many lawyers are asking whether placing electronically stored information in the cloud could inadvertently waive the attorney-client privilege and whether the government or a civil litigant could obtain ESI directly from a cloud service provider. In answering these questions, there are a number of aspects of the cloud worth considering, say Timothy Broas and Matthew Saxon of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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OSHA Plans To Comb The Construction Industry
Heightened enforcement, more citations and increased penalties are a certainty as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ups the ante for construction industry employers who ignore safety standards. From new regulations on crystalline silica to stricter injury reporting guidelines, employers have several things to watch for in the coming months, says Michael Abcarian of Fisher & Phillips LLP.