At 47 pages, U.S. District Court Judge Hall’s decision last week in Costello v. Home Depot USA (download here) denying an employer’s motion for summary judgment in an overtime case, isn’t exactly a light read.
She is, of course, not to blame. The
Insight on Labor & Employment Developments for Connecticut Businesses
At 47 pages, U.S. District Court Judge Hall’s decision last week in Costello v. Home Depot USA (download here) denying an employer’s motion for summary judgment in an overtime case, isn’t exactly a light read.
She is, of course, not to blame. The…
Over the last week, two unrelated stories caught my eye. For employers, they are a reminder that claims of pay inequality based on gender are still something to be concerned about.
The first story is that Governor Malloy announced plans for a new study to examine “factors that contribute to the gender wage gap in Connecticut’s workforce.”
The study will be run by new Connecticut Department of Labor Commissioner Sharon Palmer and Department of Economic Development Commissioner Catherine Smith. The Governor has asked the commissioners to make recommendations on the issue by October 2013.
I’ve talked about this issue before; there are some who believe that the wage gap is overstated. But the study will make headlines this year and this renewed focus in Connecticut on the issue should have employers revisiting their own practices.
The second story illustrates the claim in much more real world terms and shows the perils of trying to navigate your way through such claims.
In Morse v. Pratt & Whitney, decided last week, a federal court — among other issues — denied an employer’s motion for summary judgment on an Title VII unequal pay claim.Continue Reading Gender Inequality Claims Make Headlines in Case and in New Study
In the five plus years of this blog, it’s rare to find topics that I haven’t covered, at least minimally.
One such topic, though, is the notion of “mitigation of damages”. It is a concept found in lots of cases, but it has particular importance in employment discrimination cases.
An employee who claims he…
Nearly five years ago, I posted my very first post on this site.
It’s still relevant today. In it, I discussed how each federal judge publishes a “Chambers Practices” that can give you insight into how judges treat certain cases.
For example, wouldn’t it be helpful to know which judge indicated that he “rarely…
As we continue a look back this week at some older posts, who could forget this classic post from April 2008.
In it, I answer the burning question:
Is putting a toilet training book, such as “The Book of Poop”, on a disabled co-worker’s desk sufficient to create a Hostile Work Environment?
And what happens…
This morning, Jon Hyman over at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, reported on a 6th Circuit decision that suggested that an employment discrimination claim could survive even in the absence of a jury finding an “adverse employment action.”
Yesterday, a District Court decision in Connecticut said exactly the opposite. Indeed, the court granted an employer’s…
Suppose you’re an employer who has been served with a wage & hour claim. Rather than fight the claim, you decide to give in.
You file an Offer of Judgment (under Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, if you’re keeping track at home) and offer to provide the employee with more than…
Continuing my occasional series of revisiting posts I’ve done over the last (nearly) five years, I look back to one I did during the first month of blogging.
In a post on September 14, 2007, I looked at an online resource often overlooked — the chambers practices of federal judges which is found on the…
Employers in Connecticut (and other states) have a whole host of notices that must go up in a common meeting area for employees to see.
But what happens when an employer forgets to do the postings, or, worse, purposely avoids putting those posters up?
A recent federal…
As I’ve lamented from my very first post, too often the press focuses on new cases that are brought without placing them in context. Yet every month, federal and state courts in Connecticut consider dozens of employment law cases that never make the headlines.
One…