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Emilio’s Pizzeria & Ristorante, located in Long Island, New York, is facing criticism after the owner reportedly insulted and physically attacked a gay employee. Michael Abenante had worked at Emilio’s as a waiter since 2017. Abenante, who identifies as gay, wore the wrong shoes to work in November 2019. In response to this mistake, the restaurant owner, Emilio Branchinelli, allegedly yelled “F—king f—got, I’ll murder you!” Then, Branchinelli allegedly kicked Abenante in the back and punched him in the face.

Too often, large employers violate the workplace rights of flat rate contract drivers. The good news is that these drivers are winning lawsuits around the country to get back their rightfully earned wages. If you are a flat rate contract driver, keep reading to learn how you can protect your rights now so that you may have a more successful lawsuit in the future. 

1. Keep Your Receipts

Keep all of your receipts for any work-related expenses. Flat rate contract drivers often

Anthony Jefferson was shopping at On the Road Automotive Group, a car dealership in the Bronx, to buy his wife a car for her birthday when something horrific happened. Three armed suspects fired several shots into the car dealership. Jefferson quickly shielded his children, aged six, five, and two, from the bullets with his body. While protecting his children, Jefferson was shot three times in the legs. None of Jefferson’s children were injured due to his heroism. The NYPD is

Arbitration is a private form of dispute resolution where conflicting parties choose a third party to resolve a dispute. Rather than filing a lawsuit in court, parties in arbitration privately resolve a conflict behind closed doors. Employers first created this process to lower legal costs and hold disputes in a venue that might be more sympathetic to them. For example, some employers think that arbitrators, who may be retired judges or business people, are more impartial than typical jurors and

Last week, Andrew Yang, a former candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, wrote on Twitter: “if I’m not the Secretary of Labor I’m pretty confident I’ll have his or her number to talk about the ridiculous classification of WWE wrestlers as independent contractors while controlling their name and likeness for years, even for something as benign as Cameo.” Unlike employees, independent contractors don’t receive certain legal protections, such as those of anti-discrimination laws, overtime pay laws, or healthcare benefits.

Andrew

The Law Office of Christopher Q. Davis, located in New York City, recently received preliminary approval for a $4.1 million dollar settlement on behalf of IT workers. The Law Office of Christopher Q. Davis represented a class of IT employees who worked at FDM Group, Inc. These employees argued that they were misclassified as overtime-exempt and should have received overtime wages. After nearly 6 months of negotiations on this issue, The Law Office of Christopher Q. Davis struck a $4.1

A former music director at a Catholic Church in Chicago claimed that his supervisor harassed him because he is gay and overweight. The music director then sued the Catholic Church for employment discrimination claims. The Seventh Circuit ruled that the Church is not immune from all cases of employment discrimination even though it is a religious institution. 

What the Ministerial Exception means for the Catholic Church

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru that

Wells Fargo will pay former job applicants $7.8 million in back wages to settle discrimination claims. The U.S. Department of Labor accused Wells Fargo of discriminating against thousands of job applicants on the basis of race and sex. The bank allegedly discriminated against 34,193 black applicants and 308 female applicants for banking, sales, customer service, and administrative positions. Wells Fargo has settled at least two prior employment discrimination lawsuits, most recently in 2019.

Wells Fargo’s Response

As part of this settlement, Wells

Kamala Harris recently made headlines after formally accepting the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination. However, before Joe Biden picked Harris as his VP candidate, she stood up to big employers regarding their Coronavirus paid sick leave policies. Last March, as the pandemic was first hitting the United States, Kamala Harris sent a letter to the CEOs of 36 big employers — such as McDonald’s, Walmart, and Burger King — in which she demanded they “put public health ahead of profits.” Harris

15 female former employees of the NFL’s Washington Football Team (formerly the “Washington Redskins”) have come forward with serious allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. The sexual harassment allegedly took place between 2006 and 2019. The female NFL employees claim that there were inappropriate remarks about their bodies or attire and even instances of verbal abuse. The female employees cited the lack of an effective human resources department as an issue that contributed to a toxic workplace environment.

Evidence of