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Employment Law

Catch phrases can be code for discrimination

09/01/2007

Does your organization use phrases such as “fits our culture” or “understands our vision” as part of the hiring decision? If so, you may be setting yourself up for a discrimination lawsuit. Why? Because courts and juries sometimes view such subjective language as evidence that something else lies behind those phrases …

Independent inquiry saves the day on supervisor harassment

09/01/2007

Employers can fairly easily limit their liability in sexual harassment cases. Rigorously enforcing a solid harassment policy does the trick. But supervisor harassment is another matter. When a supervisor allegedly harasses a subordinate, the employer is liable unless it can show that some “tangible employment action” by the supervisor didn’t adversely affect
the victim …

Whistle-Blower law doesn’t limit right to sue for nongovernment reporting

09/01/2007

Before the Illinois Whistleblower Act became law, employees could sue employers for retaliatory discharge if they reported wrongdoing either internally or to the government or the media. Some lawyers thought the act wiped out such broad employee protections. Now an Illinois appeals court has clarified that employees are protected even if they take their complaints outside an employer’s formal resolutions process …

Complaining about working conditions—And public policy violations—Also protected

09/01/2007

An employee who reports that his or her employer is violating state or federal law may be protected from discharge. The employee can sue for retaliatory discharge and also on the premise that firing him or her violates public policy …

Pharmaceutical reps hit Abbott with unpaid overtime suit

09/01/2007

A class of pharmaceutical sales representatives has filed suit against North Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories for unpaid overtime. The lawsuit claims that Abbott, like other drug makers, unlawfully classified pharmaceutical reps as salespeople. Salespeople are exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act …

Woman has affair, quits and then loses sex discrimination case

09/01/2007

The course of true love, at least in the workplace, runs straight to the courtroom. But Floor Covering Associates of Joliet received a reprieve recently when the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court verdict in its favor …

Lewd butcher kept on well past ‘Sell by’ date

09/01/2007

Jewel Food Stores settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with four female employees for $200,000, but the meat department manager who spawned the suit has had a surprising shelf life …

Caterpillar sues UAW over retiree health benefits suits

09/01/2007

Caterpillar Inc. has filed lawsuits to force the United Auto Workers (UAW) to pay for health care for retirees as agreed in union-negotiated contracts. Caterpillar says the UAW is backing two class-action lawsuits seeking free lifetime coverage for retirees and spouses, which the company says violates collective-bargaining agreements …

Firefighters claim Chicago suburb wanted black department

09/01/2007

Four white part-time firefighters have sued the village of Dolton for racial discrimination after the town’s fire department promoted two black firefighters to full-time positions over white candidates with better qualifications. The plaintiffs claim Dolton Fire Chief Jerry McCullough told them, “If you’re not black, you’re not getting hired.” …

Attorneys’ fees may be due even if employees collect nothing

09/01/2007

It was a good case for the lawyers anyway. Demonstrating just how expensive an ADA case can be, a federal appeals court ordered fees to be paid to the attorneys who brought a class-action ADA case against Rent-A-Center. The case involved the company’s use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test to screen out applicants and employees with low scores …