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Hobby Lobby is under fire for cutting staff pay to make up for profit loss due to Coronavirus. According to employees, the company will cut the pay of full-time workers by 10% and terminate all benefits. Because employees will likely have increased medical costs due to the global pandemic, many are outraged. Furthermore, Hobby Lobby allegedly terminated at least 32 employees in Hobby Lobby’s art and creative department. A letter was sent out to affected employees last week to notify

The widespread employment consequences of the Coronavirus are already hitting the U.S. economy. Over 3 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. Social distancing precautions to protect public health have shut down entire sectors of American industry. This change, although essential to prevent the spread of the virus, has hit minimum wage and low wage workers particularly hard. These workers often have customer-facing roles, such as in the restaurant, retail, cosmetology, and hospitality industries. In addition to filing for

The coronavirus pandemic has drastically escalated in the past few weeks. Schools, universities, restaurants, gyms, retail stores, and other workplaces have closed in order to prevent further spreading of the virus. Although these measures are important to protect public health, they have also resulted in many workers being laid off. For certain workers who cannot work from home, like servers, janitors, and retail workers, this epidemic has put their jobs (and paychecks) on hold. If you have been laid off

With the coronavirus pandemic spreading throughout the United States, employers are tackling a range of employee issues. Of course, the top priority for any employer should be employee safety. However, this pandemic suggests that many company sick-leave policies are inadequate, particularly for low-wage employees. As the Center for Disease Control has recommended, anyone with Coronavirus should stay home from work in order to prevent infecting others. Yet, many employees live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to miss work. Many

The Law Office of Christopher Q. Davis recently won a decision on the certification of wage claims for sushi restaurant workers in Brooklyn, New York. Firm partners Christopher Davis and Rachell Haskell advocated for former servers at Mitoushi Sushi. Davis and Haskell successfully argued that Mitoushi did not pay workers minimum wage and overtime pay as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Therefore, the Court decided that “Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification as a FLSA collective action, and

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Twitter have announced that they will continue to pay their hourly workers normal wages despite the fact that many staff members are encouraged to telecommute. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, telecommute work is seen as a precaution to protect employees from infection. With many salaried employees working from home, these companies don’t have the same need for on-site hourly workers. On-site hourly workers do a wide range of office support tasks, such as cooking meals, office

Judge Woods of the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York recently granted our firm’s motion. Our firm moved to invalidate deceptive arbitration agreements on behalf of IT workers in a class-action lawsuit. The Court found that the IT employer’s new arbitration policy was instituted in bad faith. IT workers were required to sign the arbitration agreement in order to keep their jobs, essentially giving them no choice but to sign away their rights in court. Because the IT

Americans are known for working longer hours. In an average year, the typical American works 100 more hours than a Brit, 300 more hours than a Frenchman, and 400 more than a German. The typical American also takes fewer vacation days than our European counterparts. When taking on more overtime hours, some employees are hyper-focused on overtime payments and moving up the career ladder. However, there are a number of negative consequences to working longer hours that you may not

The Coronavirus outbreak is believed to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, China. The flu-like illness is both deadly and contagious, with thousands of cases confirmed globally and over 2,700 deaths. Symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. There are now at least 60 confirmed cases in the United States. As the virus is spreading globally, so are racist attacks against Asians. Many are comparing this discrimination to that which occurred during the SARS epidemic in 2003,

Within the next month or two, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide to what extent religious organizations may be exempt from discrimination lawsuits filed by employees. The court is considering two cases involving teachers at two Catholic schools in California. Both teachers filed wrongful termination and bias lawsuits. Generally, courts have ruled that the First Amendment prohibits anti-bias lawsuits against religious organizations for hiring or firing employees. However, some argue that all employers, regardless of their religious affiliation,