By Linda H. Evans, Senior Associate. The Customer May Not Always Be Right! A Lowe’s store in Virginia recently received a request from a customer: No black drivers were to deliver to her house. Initially, managers at the store honored the request. However, now that the company officials […]
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By Linda H. Evans, Senior Associate. Keeping an eye on the NLRB As August winds down, some NLRB watchers are expecting to see a flurry of activity from the Board. Possible announcements could include one dealing with an expanded view of what constitutes joint employers and another one […]
By Linda H. Evans, Senior Associate. EEOC FILES SUIT Hillshire Brands Company in Paris, Texas, was sued this week by the EEOC. The EEOC claims the company subjected a class of African-American employees to a racially hostile work environment, including racially offensive graffiti and comments at the workplace. […]
By Kelline R. Linton, Associate. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued guidance today that clarified the independent contractor versus employee issue. The 15-page memorandum advised that most workers qualify as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) expansive definition of employment, which defines employment as “to suffer or […]
By Linda H. Evans, Senior Associate. It was announced last week that the Obama administration plans to raise the wage requirement used by companies that exempts millions of executive, administrative, and professional workers from overtime and minimum wage. This “white collar” exemption currently applies to those workers who earn […]
By Linda H. Evans, Senior Associate. Six staffing agencies have been investigated and are working on an agreement with the Department of Labor (“DOL”) to pay $3.5 million in back wages to about 3,000 workers. The workers were employed to work on projects in the Gulf coast area and […]
By Kelline R. Linton, Associate. Texas businesses reporting employee crime are protected from defamation suits The Texas Supreme Court recently issued a long-anticipated opinion that protects companies forced to report their employees to authorities for criminal activities. In Shell Oil Co. v. Writt, the Court held that an […]
By Kelline R. Linton, Associate. Both the NLRB and OSHA recently published guidelines for employer policies that tackle two hot topics in the workplace. Social Media Policy Since 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has focused on the propriety of employer policies that address employees’ use […]
By Linda H. Evans, Senior Associate. Last summer, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), in conjunction with the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, adopted a new rule that it quietly put into place without most of us noticing. Like many states, Texas normally will correct an employer’s unemployment account if the […]
By Kelline R. Linton, Associate. EEOC’s Duty to Conciliate Last week, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held that courts have the authority to review whether the EEOC satisfies its pre-suit obligation to attempt conciliation. (Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC, No. 13-1019 (April 29, 2015)). Under federal law, the […]