WSNYC Blog: The Latest in Employment Law

In an earlier blog, we argued that Trump’s acting Navy Secretary, Thomas Modly, possibly exercised undue command influence by firing former Navy captain Brett Crozier before the completion of an impartial investigation, especially if he was influenced by the White House in doing so as the Washington Post has claimed.   Unlawful command influence prohibits any person in a position of higher authority from influencing the outcomes of military judicial proceedings. It seeks to eliminate political pressure, abuses of power, or

Brett Crozier, the captain of a US Navy aircraft carrier was fired for disseminating a memo that warned Navy leadership of an escalating coronavirus outbreak on the USS Ronald Reagan.  The memo pointed out that the 4,800 officers and sailors on board could not follow CDC health guidelines due to the ship’s close quarters.  It also warned of possible deaths on board and called for “decisive action” immediately. On Thursday, April 2, acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, announced

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

On March 27th, Instacart workers and Gig Workers Collective, an activist non-profit, published a letter on Medium announcing plans for a nationwide strike on March 30th to protest Instacart’s refusal to provide workers “with effective protection, meaningful pay, and meaningful benefits” amidst the coronavirus pandemic.  Instacart is a grocery delivery service that has become increasingly popular over the past several weeks for people who are unwilling or unable to go outside of their homes.  Instacart’s gig workers, also known as

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