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Washington Labor, Employment & Employee Benefits Law 
Current Events in Labor, Employment, and Employee Benefits Law in Seattle, Washington and across the United States.
Post Frequency: 1.8/day Last Entry: June 18, 2009 at 17:37:06 Recent Entries: 237
By Donald W. Heyrich
Go to Washington Labor, Employment & Employee Benefits Law, find other Labor & Employment Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Washington Court Allows Wrongful Discharge Claim by Women?s Basketball Coach
Posted on March 26, 2008Trev Kiser was the women?s basketball coach at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. Kisar complained to school officials about a pattern of inequality between the men's and women's basketball programs, such as in the quality of the officiating assigned to...
Employee Who Took Company Documents Charged With Computer Trespass
Posted on March 26, 2008A criminal case filed in King County Superior Court demonstrates the consequences faced by an employee who takes company documents without permission. Gerald Eastman, an 18-year employee and former quality assurance inspector for Boeing, is on trial facing 16 felony...
Washington Court Allows Wrongful Discharge Claim by Women???s Basketball Coach
Posted on March 26, 2008Trev Kiser was the women???s basketball coach at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. Kisar complained to school officials about a pattern of inequality between the men's and women's basketball programs, such as in the quality of the officiating assigned to...
Court: Subjective Hiring Process Permitted Racial Bias
Posted on March 24, 2008A recent case in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrates how discretionary decision-making can lead to employment discrimination claims. David Dunlap sued his employer for race discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dunlap had...
4,000 Nurses On Strike in San Francisco
Posted on March 23, 2008Nurses at eight Sutter Health Hospitals in the Bay Area started a 10-day strike on Friday, their third walk-out in six months. The nurses and the hospitals are at loggerheads in negotiations over healthcare, pensions, meal and break periods, and...
FLSA Misclassification and Overtime in Retail Jobs
Posted on March 23, 2008C.R. Wright of Fisher & Phillips LLP recently posted this useful article on Fair Labor Standards Act litigation in retail jobs. The article notes a huge increase in overtime cases under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and...
Wage Class Action Settled for $5.25 Million
Posted on March 23, 2008The City of Colorado Springs agreed to pay police officers $5.25 Million in a wage and hour class action lawsuit. The suit concerned the classification of Sergeants as exempt employees under overtime laws and the time spent by police officers...
Starbucks Baristas Awarded $106 Million for Wage Claims
Posted on March 21, 2008Last week, we wrote about the wage claim class action concerning the tip jar at Starbucks stores in California. A class of an estimated 120,000 Starbucks baristas requested pay for their fair share of money from the tip jar. The...
Aging Workforce Likely To Increase Age Discrimination Claims and Change Retirement Plans
Posted on March 21, 2008Within 20 years, nearly 20% of Americans, 71 million people, will be age 65 or older. Thanks to the baby boomers, America is getting older and doing so at a rapid rate. Recently, a federal task force published a report...
Sexism at Work
Posted on March 19, 2008Lis Wiehl is an author, TV Legal Analyst, and law professor who started her career at my favorite former law firm in Seattle. Here is an article on a recent speech of hers addressing sexism at work. Wiehl says that...
HIPAA and Britney Spears
Posted on March 19, 2008We could not pass up an opportunity to mention Britney Spears here on our blog. As reported in this article, UCLA Medical Center is imposing discipline against 13 employees who looked at Britney?s medical records without permission. This seems to...
$2 Million Verdict in Retaliation Case
Posted on March 15, 2008Earlier this week, a jury in Connecticut returned a $2 million verdict for the plaintiff in a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. A school principal argued that she was retaliated against after reporting that two teachers had abused minority students...
$4.4 Million Discrimination Verdict Set Aside by Washington Court
Posted on March 14, 2008In November 2007, a jury in Seattle awarded $4.4 million to Melissa Sheffield in a discrimination lawsuit. Sheffield sued her former employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., for retaliation after she complained of sexual orientation harassment, and she also claimed...
?Tens of Millions? from the Starbucks Tip Jar?
Posted on March 13, 2008How much money is there in a coffee house tip jar? A trial is underway in San Diegoto find out. The jury will be asked to award damages to employees who allegedly were denied a fair share from the tip...
Defamation Liability During Workplace Investigations
Posted on March 13, 2008The Ohio Employer's Law Blog reports today about an interesting case from the Ohio Supreme Court. The case concerns alleged defamatory statements in an internal investigation report about a police chief. The police chief sued for defamation after the report...
9th Circuit: Public Employee Drug Test Was Unconstitutional
Posted on March 13, 2008Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion holding that a preemployment drug test on an Oregon public employee was unconstitutional. The plaintiff was offered a job in a city library conditioned on a drug test. She challenged...
???Tens of Millions??? from the Starbucks Tip Jar?
Posted on March 13, 2008How much money is there in a coffee house tip jar? A trial is underway in San Diego to find out. The jury will be asked to award damages to employees who allegedly were denied a fair share from the...
Constructive Discharge Claim Dismissed by Washington Court
Posted on March 12, 2008Yesterday, Division III of the Washington Court of Appeals issued an ?unpublished? opinion addressing constructive discharge under Washington law. The decision does not break any new ground in Washington employment law, which why it is unpublished, but it is worthwhile...
Supreme Court Considers Another Case On ERISA Remedies
Posted on March 12, 2008As noted below, on February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified a remedy issue under ERISA. Employees can sue under ERISA Section 502(a)(2) for fiduciary breaches that impair the value of assets in a 401(k) account. Last week, the Supreme...
Constructive Discharge Claim Dismissed by Washington Court
Posted on March 12, 2008Yesterday, Division III of the Washington Court of Appeals issued an ???unpublished??? opinion addressing constructive discharge under Washington law. The decision does not break any new ground in Washington employment law, which why it is unpublished, but it is worthwhile...
Supreme Court Considers Another Case On ERISA Remedies
Posted on March 12, 2008As noted below, on February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified a remedy issue under ERISA. Employees can sue under ERISA Section 502(a)(2) for fiduciary breaches that impair the value of assets in a 401(k) account. Last week, the Supreme...
Court Allows Lawsuit for Coworker Retaliation
Posted on March 10, 2008In a recent case, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Title VII permits claims against an employer for acts of retaliation by coworkers. According to the court, an employer will be liable for a coworker's actions if: (1)...
Court: Disability Benefit Plan Can Require Objective Evidence of Disability
Posted on March 10, 2008ERISA disability benefit plans commonly require objective medical evidence of disability. This can be a difficult hurdle for claimants who believe they are disabled by conditions that cannot be evaluated by objective evidence. In one recent case, for example, the...
Sharp Increase in Employment Discrimination Cases
Posted on March 09, 2008According to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), employment discrimination charges rose 9% in 2007, the largest increase in 15 years. The increases occurred in nearly every category and, for the first time, retaliation claims have outnumbered sex-based...
Court: Overtime Pay Required Even Where the Employee Was Not Authorized to Work Overtime
Posted on March 08, 2008A recent decision by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrates that an employer can be liable for overtime pay even if employees have been forbidden to work overtime. The case is Chao v. Gotham Registry, Inc. and can be...
Jury Verdict: $1.6 Million for Accused Harassers
Posted on March 08, 2008An article from the LA Times (here) discusses a painful case against the Los Angeles City Fire Department. The case arises out of a hazing incident in which a black firefighter, Tennie Pierce, had his dinner laced with dog food....
Employer Ordered To Produce Employee Contact Information in Overtime Lawsuit
Posted on March 08, 2008In employment lawsuits, plaintiffs? attorneys frequently request information about employees other than the plaintiff, including address and telephone numbers for current and former employees. When responding to such requests, employers are sometimes concerned that producing employee contact information will (a)...
"Associational Discrimination" Claim For Termination Caused By Spouse?s Medical Costs
Posted on March 04, 2008A recent decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals addresses ?association discrimination? under the Americans with Disabilities Act (?ADA?) in the context of medical insurance expenses. The plaintiff in the case contended that she was fired because of her...
ERISA Case Addresses Health Coverage for Eating Disorders
Posted on March 04, 2008An interesting ERISA class action addresses whether treatment for an eating disorder should be covered by an employer health plan. The case addresses an Aetna health plan that limited coverage for ?nonbiologically based mental illnesses.? An article about the case...
More Workers Collecting Disability Benefits
Posted on March 04, 2008Human Resource Executive Online has an interesting article here on recent increases in the number of disability benefits claims filed each year. The duration of disability claims is increasing too. A 35-year-old, white-collar male today who suffers a disability lasting...
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Can my employer threaten me with termination if I don't seek a transfer to another department?
In many jurisdictions, employees are "at will". This means that their employmen...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
Can I sue my employer for being unethical, undue stress, and making false promises to get me to stay at my job?
You can sue him personally for it. It's can fall under harassment and possi...
How to collect a personal loan from a spouse?
You local court will probably have someone to offer you some assistance as you p...
How to prevent an arrest from appearing in the local newspaper?
Dont know the law in Minnesota but in most jurisdictions an arrest is a matter o...
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Can my employer threaten me with termination if I don't seek a transfer to another department?
In many jurisdictions, employees are "at will". This means that their employmen...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
Can I sue my employer for being unethical, undue stress, and making false promises to get me to stay at my job?
You can sue him personally for it. It's can fall under harassment and possi...
How to collect a personal loan from a spouse?
You local court will probably have someone to offer you some assistance as you p...
How to prevent an arrest from appearing in the local newspaper?
Dont know the law in Minnesota but in most jurisdictions an arrest is a matter o...
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