The U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently ruled on the employer's appeal of an $11 million verdict in a whistleblower retaliation case, Wadler v. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (9th Cir. Feb. 26, 2019). Mr. Wadler was an in-house attorney for a medical...
Federal labor law may seem complicated to you at first glance. However, when you have the right information about the specifics of your case, you may find that the rules become much clearer. While there are certain exceptions, the general rules on hours worked would...
During an interview, employers cannot ask you deeply personal or inappropriate questions. However, other questions that seem innocent can lead to bias against you. It may be difficult to tell the difference. What are illegal interview questions?There are interview...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a case from Maryland, recently held that a female employee who was falsely accused in the workplace of having slept her way to a promotion, could bring hostile work environment and retaliatory termination claims...
Alan Kabat recently organized and moderated a CLE panel at the annual conference of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association on wage and hour laws, which included a discussion on misclassification of employees as independent contractors in the new...
Here's an update on the October 2018 jury verdict in our firm's tenure case against American University. On February 5, 2019, Judge Rankin denied defendant's post-trial motion . AU made three primary arguments, each of which the court rejected. Some excerpts follow...
There are at least four ways in which sex-based favoritism in the workplace - where the boss favors an employee with whom he is having a sexual relationship - creates legal liability for the employer. First is through a discrimination claim by the other workers who...
What is sexual harassment in the workplace?Sexual harassment in the workplace is almost always about power - one person is trying to dominate or control another person and is using harassing conduct as a way to marginalize someone else. It is treating someone else as...
In today's economy, the "workplace" includes not only co-workers but also a wide range of independent contractors, consultants, and other individuals who are not fellow employees but who work for themselves or for another company. If an employee alleges that he or she...
Today, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 8-0 opinion by Justice Gorsuch (Justice Kavanaugh was not on the ruling as it was argued before he joined), holding that the employee, a truck driver, fell into an exception to the Federal Arbitration Act (it does not cover...
