On March 22, 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that an oral complaint by an employee of a violation of the federal wage and hour laws (knows as the Fair Labor Standards act “FLSA”) is sufficient to support a claim for retaliation in violation of the FLSA.  The FLSA prohibits retaliation for “filing...

No.  The federal Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. § 525(b)) clearly states that no private employer may terminate employment or refuse to hire solely because someone has filed for bankruptcy or because the employee is associated with someone who filed.  Unlike other employment discrimination laws, however, the Bankruptcy Code does not award attorneys’ fees and...

The Supreme Court of New York recently held that an ex-employee was permitted to write blog entries about his former employer despite signed confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements.  The Court found that the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protected individuals from judicial restraint of speech related to a public concern.  The former employer...

Surprisingly, there are few laws protecting employee privacy. That will no doubt change in the next 20 years (the law is slow to catch up), but in the meantime an employee possesses a limited right to privacy in the workplace. Both the United States Supreme Court (in O’Connor v. Ortega) and the New Jersey...

Company decisions on hiring and firing often are made by more than one person.  Many times, a lower-level manager influences the decision of a more senior manager.  In employment discrimination lawsuits, defendants frequently argue that the "ultimate decision-maker" was not motivated by discrimination even if a lower-level manager may have been.  Employees, on the...

It happens a lot but few people ever do anything about it.  You can never get all of your work done in 40 hours a week but your boss refuses to approve overtime pay.  The boss says you should be able to finish all your work in eight hours a day, but if you...

In NASA v. Nelson (January 19, 2011), the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that NASA’s standard background check for its contract employees does not violate the constitutional right to privacy.  The background check, which is similar to that used for other federal job applicants, includes asking whether the employee has used or possessed...

The ACLU has recently taken on the issue of whether an employer can force an employee to disclose his Facebook username and password.  A Maryland Corrections Officer was forced to disclose his username and password as part of the re-certification process.  The interviewer immediately logged into his Facebook account and began reviewing the material. The...

A company that fired a unionized employee, Dawnmarie Souza, after she posted negative remarks about her boss on Facebook settled a complaint last week brought by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  The case focused on how much freedom employees enjoy when posting comments about employment issues from their home computers on the Internet. The...

Eric Thompson claimed he was fired because his fiancé filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The United States Supreme Court unanimously held that if Thompson’s allegations proved true, then firing him was illegal retaliation under federal laws banning discrimination in the workplace.  See Thompson v. North American Stainless (January...