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Labor Relations / Unions

City settles meter reader’s race claim

09/01/2007

Port St. Lucie has settled a race discrimination claim filed by a demoted meter reader for $60,000 and a promotion. The black woman filing the suit was a meter reader supervisor when she was called away for duty in the Army Reserve. Upon returning, she found she had been demoted and a white male now held her position …

Attorney general cracks down on forced unionization

09/01/2007

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott recently sued employers and a labor organization in El Paso and Corpus Christi for allegedly forcing employees to become union members or pay union dues in violation of the state’s right-to-work law …

High court says Labor Dept. right to limit overtime for some

08/01/2007

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in a closely watched overtime case that employees classified as home health care workers aren’t entitled to some Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections …

Union to pay $800,000 for contempt of discrimination court orders

08/01/2007

Local 580 of the Ornamental Iron Workers, a construction trade union in New York City, will pay $800,000 to settle a contempt action by the EEOC for referring white members to jobs more frequently than blacks and Hispanics …

Daley asks teachers’ union for a longer Chicago school day

08/01/2007

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has asked the Chicago Teachers Union for longer school days …

Draft ‘Last-Chance’ agreements with care

08/01/2007

Q. We have a poor-performing employee who is up for discharge. The union has requested that we give him one “last chance,” and has said that it will agree to a last-chance agreement if we don’t terminate his employment now. What is the impact of a last-chance agreement? — J.R.

No witness needed for disciplinary meeting

08/01/2007

Q. I run a large restaurant and employ only nonunion workers. Recently, I called one of the waiters into my office to issue him a warning for arriving late for his shifts. He told me he had a right to have one of the cooks there witness our exchange. Is he right? …

SoCal grocery workers vote to authorize strike

07/20/2007

A California jury has awarded more than $300,000 to a former Sonoma State University softball coach who claimed that she was wrongfully fired …

Understanding religious accommodation in Illinois workplaces

07/01/2007

Illinois mirrors America’s growing diversity in many ways. Today, mosques occupy old churches; co-workers wear burqas and yarmulkes; and some employees request “prayer breaks”  …

U.S. Supreme Court asks solicitor general to review California law

07/01/2007

The U. S. Supreme Court in May invited the U.S. solicitor general to file an amicus brief addressing whether the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) pre-empts a California law …