WSNYC Blog: The Latest in Employment Law

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

The Law Firm of Christopher Q. Davis announces that Rachel M. Haskell has made Partner.  This was not a hard decision.  Deciding what to have for breakfast was harder.  This is because Rachel is a terrific human being and an excellent lawyer.  She is respected and liked by our staff, other lawyers, and judges.  Who will replace Rachel as an Associate, you ask? Now that is a difficult decision.  Her shoes are impossible to fill.  So starting in October we

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

An article published on Forbes last month entailed the role of frontline managers and their importance in cultivating a

happy and productive work environment. Laura Putman, the Founder and CEO of Motion Infusion, stated in the article that frontline managers play a key role in “determining employee, health, happiness, and engagement.” In a research study conducted at Karolinska Institutet, managerial leadership had a major effect on whether employees changed jobs or became unemployed. According to the article, frontline managers are essential

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

The Coronavirus pandemic led to many new teleworker positions across all industries. As workers were forced to work from the safety of their homes, many wondered about compensable hours. The United States Department of Labor released clarifying guidance this past week about this issue. The guidance specifies that employers have an obligation to track compensable hours of their teleworkers. This reaffirms the idea that workers must be paid for all worked hours, no matter where they are located.

Compensable Hours

The United

On Monday, the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan may proceed in his review of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to drop the prosecution of Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security advisor.  Mr. Flynn has pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about conversations with a Russian ambassador.  Surprisingly, in May, the DOJ moved to drop the case.

Since then, all sides have been debating whether Judge Sullivan has to dismiss

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