Employment law
Ageist Culture Boomerangs on Baby Boomers
Not trusting anyone under 60? Despite the number of baby boomers in the workforce, age discrimination remains a problem in many businesses. A multitude of companies engage in deceitful and sometimes illegal practices to lay off or fire older workers so they won’t have to pay higher salaries or benefits. We at Hornberger & Brewer [...]
Sexual Harassment Litigation Helps Protect Workers on the Job
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At Hornberger & Brewer, our business litigation experience is useful not just in legal disputes over employment contracts, but in court cases involving the more recognizable employment law issues of racial discrimination, wrongful termination … and [...]
Avoid a Wrongful Termination Lawsuit: Legally Terminate Employees
Feeling the heat of the economic climate? If your business has resorted to layoffs or may soon scale back operations, you may be at an increased risk for wrongful termination lawsuits. Hundreds of employment lawsuits are filed each week, and with employees winning two-thirds of all cases, small businesses are on the losing side. The [...]
Employment Labor Law and Summer Interns
Every summer, a rush of high school and college students look for a leg up on the competition by seeking internships. Summer interns are often viewed as the win/win of the workforce, giving much-needed experience to interns and by providing cheap labor to businesses. Note—we didn’t say “free” labor, which is a common legal misconception! [...]
Employment Law and Chipotle’s Hard Cheese
This week, 1,000 more employers received notice to open their hiring records for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspection. This latest round of notices brings the fiscal year’s total to 2,338 compliance audits—a record high. The record high results from the Obama administration’s aim at employers who hire undocumented workers, taking the focus off [...]
Is Commute Sickness an Employment Disability?
Robin DiNatale filed a complaint against her employer, the New York State Insurance Fund, for failure to reasonably accommodate her disability when she requested to work from home. Her disability? She claimed her 22-mile commute made her sick. Did the New York State Insurance Fund discriminate against DiNatale by denying her request? New York’s state [...]
Depression A Major Reason for Short-Term Disability
According to Spencer’s Benefits Reports, workers receiving treatment for depression are twice as likely to use short-term disability as their colleagues who have never been treated for mental health issues. Researchers found in the study commissioned by the drug maker Sanofi Aventis that even when employees were in treatment and given prescriptions for anti-depressants there [...]
Independent Contractor vs Employee: IRS Cracks Down
By Maryam K. Ansari The Internal Revenue Service is cracking down on the “independent contractor vs employee” question in a new program. As a result, small and large businesses alike are on their toes. Watch out for misclassification of employees and workers. It’s a huge money-saver for a small business to get into the practice of [...]
Woodland Hills Employees Wrongfully Terminated Must Face At-Will Employment Limitations
Posted by Rice & Bloomfield Los Angeles and all of California, are seeing the same changes in the economy that is seen across the country. Unemployment is up, which means people are losing their jobs. When you lose your job, it is only natural to think that your employer has done something wrong. They have [...]
White House braces unemployed for slow job rebound
By STEVEN R. HURST Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) – Buoyed by good news on the jobs front, the White House claimed credit Sunday for reversing the downward economic spiral while bracing out-of-work Americans for a slow recovery. The Obama administration also eased away from confrontation with China over its artificially low currency. The U.S. [...]
