Connecticut Employment Law Blog Insight on Labor & Employment Developments for Connecticut Businesses

Tag Archives: court of appeals

Employer Who Fired Returning Reservist Did Not Violate USERRA

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Laws and Regulations, Litigation

USERRA (quick, name that acronym, answer down below) is a oft-misunderstood federal statute that addresses employment issues for reservists and active duty members of the armed forces. A recent Second Circuit decision (Hart v. Family Dental Group, decided May 31, 2011), arising from a federal court filing in Connecticut demonstrates the difficulties employers may have… Continue Reading

Second Circuit: Repeated Use of “Bitch” May Be Enough to Create Hostile Work Environment

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in CHRO & EEOC, Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation

If you’re an employer with an appeal to the Second Circuit, having the EEOC write a brief on behalf of the Plaintiff-employee is not one of those things that portends well for the case. So, when the Second Circuit issued its decision in Pucino v. Verizon Communications (download here), perhaps the writing was already on the… Continue Reading

Musings from the Second Circuit

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Litigation

Today, I had the opportunity to argue in front of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in downtown Manhattan. (Hence the reason for the sparseness of posts lately).   Although I have been there before, it continues to rank among the most professionally rewarding experiences in my career. Every attorney who dreams of an oral… Continue Reading

New Second Circuit Decision Takes Some of the “Judgment” Out of the “Business Judgment Rule”, Particularly for Union-Related Matters

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Uncategorized

Let the politicians and the newspapers cite a new Second Circuit decision as being important for "saving jobs" in Connecticut. It makes for good press, but for employers, the decision is more important for a different reason than highlighted in the press: The Court has weakened one of the arguments that employers use to support their… Continue Reading

Office Space: Reassignment of Office Enough to Establish Claim of Retaliation But Not Discrimination

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation

 A decision last week by the Second Circuit might seem fairly trivial. After all, the Court stamped a "summary order" in the case of Cunningham v. NY State Dept. of Labor (download here)  on June 10, 2009 thereby making sure the case doesn’t have precedential effect. But employers shouldn’t ignore this decision; it illustrates the differences… Continue Reading

In Retaliation Cases, Timing is Everything, Except When the Second Circuit Says Otherwise

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation

Suppose an employee files a complaint against your company and it’s quickly dealt with.  Now suppose, ten months later, that you, the employer, fire that employee  – ostensibly for financial reasons.  Is the timing between the original complaint and the termination enough to support a claim for retaliation? Previous federal court cases in Connecticut have… Continue Reading

“But My Co-Worker Did The Same Thing!” – Second Circuit Rejects Claims that Co-Workers Were “Similarly-Situated”

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation

Whenever someone gets into trouble, we’ve all heard one phrase at some point or another, particularly as a parent or child: "But So-and-so Is Doing the Same Thing!"  That is, at its essence, an argument that is sometimes made in discrimination cases.The legal name for it is "similarly situated" but the concept it entails is that… Continue Reading