http://www.elinfonet.com/ Employment Law Articles covering topics from age discrimination to WARN. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:02:09 EST en-us http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11797 Article: 11797 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Class Actions The Seventh Circuit recently applied the Supreme Court’s Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes decision to class certification in a wage and hour action, and affirmed the certification of two classes. Ross v. RBS Citizens N.A. d/b/a Charter One. The Seventh Circuit held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in certifying two classes of bank employees and that this certification met the commonality requirement clarified in Dukes. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11796 Article: 11796 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) FLSA and Wage & Hour On Jan. 25, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down 24 Hour Fitness’ arbitration policy in John Carey, Individually and On Behalf of Other Employees Similarly Situated v. 24 Hour Fitness, USA Inc. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11795 Article: 11795 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Restrictive Covenants Increasingly, we are addressing theft of confidential company information by departing employees. We thought this topic was so important that we are bringing together a panel of employment lawyers and trade secret litigators to discuss the steps you should be taking to protect this information. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11794 Article: 11794 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Labor Law Last month, the Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon issued revised instructions regarding informal settlement agreements with the NLRB. In the Memorandum (GC-11-04), the Acting General Counsel expanded the use of default language in informal settlement agreements. According to the revised procedure, whenever a Regional Office believes that there is a likelihood of the charged party/respondent being unable or unwilling to fulfill its settlement obligations, the Region is directed to include “default” language in the settlement agreement. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11793 Article: 11793 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) FLSA and Wage & Hour For the past two years, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has discussed revising its recordkeeping regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to require every employer who classifies an employee as exempt to prepare a written justification for the exemption. This justification would then have to be provided to the employee and be made available to the DOL for its review. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11792 Article: 11792 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Government Agencies The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a draft copy of its Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2012 – 2016. The Congressionally-required plan discusses 13 benchmarks that the EEOC will use to measure how well it achieves its three main performance goals: (1) combating employment discrimination through strategic law enforcement; (2) preventing employment discrimination through education and outreach; and (3) delivering excellent service through effective systems, updated technology, and a skilled and diverse workforce. According to the EEOC, the revised plan will require "significant changes in the agency's approach to fulfilling its mission." http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11791 Article: 11791 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Religious Discrimination On January 11, 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a "ministerial exception" to employment discrimination laws bars certain employees of religious purpose entities from bringing employment discrimination lawsuits against their employers (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, No. 10-533). http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11790 Article: 11790 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Human Resources The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently determined that employers must retain worker records to demonstrate their compliance with the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The EEOC's new rule applies Title II of GINA, which prevents the use of genetic information to discriminate against individuals whose genetic records may call into question the costs associated with potential medical treatment. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11789 Article: 11789 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) Government Agencies On January 25, 2012, the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported that it received a record number of discrimination charges in 2011. During that same period, the EEOC also noted it obtained a record amount of relief for discrimination claimants. http://www.elinfonet.com/newscount.php?popID=11788 Article: 11788 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST elin@elinfonet.com (Employment Law Information Network) FMLA On January 30, 2012, the Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage and Hour Division issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise regulations under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regarding leave for military caregivers and airline flight crews. The proposed regulations would implement changes to the FMLA made by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2010 and the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act (AFCTCA). Among other things, the new rules would expand military caregiver leave and add a special hours of service eligibility requirement for airline flight crew employees. In addition, the proposed rules also would impact certain regulations for calculating FMLA leave and for reinstating employees following FMLA leave.