Those were the critical issues in a precedential decision that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued yesterday. So let’s talk about it. Generally speaking, a federal law called the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) says that people who earn an hourly wage can get overtime (one-and-a-half times their regular hourly wage for…
Benoît Prieur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits aren’t exactly fodder for Silver Screen blockbusters. In a recent decision from the Middle District of Pennsylvania — not known as a Hollywood pipeline — the question was whether donning and doffing basic personal protective equipment (“PPE”) was “integral and indispensable”…
I’ve got some ‘splaining to do before we get into the meat and potatoes. First, if a company fires someone because they complain about discrimination, that’s retaliation. It doesn’t matter if the firing happens a day, week, month, or year later. If the complaint motivates the adverse employment action, and you get…
Litigators often counsel witnesses to answer, “I don’t recall,” rather than guess or speculate the response to a question at a deposition. But, sometimes, that approach can backfire. The female plaintiff in this recent Third Circuit opinion I read last night worked as a manager in the defendant’s finance department.…
This one (unlike that one) wasn’t even worth five cents. I suppose that’s what happens when you work for an airline and claim gender discrimination after getting fired for posting this publicly on your personal Facebook page: If I were Black in America, I think I’d get down on my…
Think of all the personal, sensitive information that an individual shares with you just to have the opportunity to earn a living as an employee of your company. As part of onboarding, new employees provide their home address, social security number, bank and financial account numbers for direct deposit, insurance…
The surprise will quickly disappear once I share the facts from this recent Third Circuit decision. The plaintiff was a patient representative with a local hospital. On January 3, 2014, he reported to work amid a snowstorm. After his shift ended, the plaintiff slipped and fell while searching for a…
An HR employee claimed that her age motivated her employer’s decision not to select her for a Human Resources Talent Consultant (HRTC) position after the company restructured the HR Department. Why? Because decision-makers allegedly said on a conference call that they were looking for “fresh new blood” to fill the…
Image Credit: Photofunia.com After a ten-day vacation trip with my family (IYKYK) onboard the S.S. Blog Cruiser Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, I’m back to the reality of practicing employment law and blogging about it. Today, let’s play some tunes as we gaze into the crystal ball and predict…
I’ve litigated many battles between companies over trade secrets and non-competition and non-solicitation agreements. The tie that binds them all is that these cases are expensive to prosecute and defend. When these cases advance to court, most are about one thing: getting an injunction to stop a former employee from…