By Sean F. Herrmann Judge Niemeyer’s fiery dissent in Westmoreland v. TWC Admin. LLC, No. 18-1600 (4th Cir. May 22, 2019) has people talking more than the typical employment discrimination case. In it, Judge Niemeyer proclaims: Congress would croak to learn that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., would […]
By Robin Shea Last week, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board publicly released an Advice Memorandum saying that Uber drivers are not “employees” with protections under the National Labor Relations Act. The memorandum, issued on April 16, indicates possibly tougher times for all workers in the gig economy. The General Counsel concluded […]
By Joe Murray I don’t know if Waste Connections, Inc. (WCI) discriminated against Jimmy Haynes when it terminated him in October 2015, but I do know that it did just about everything wrong from an HR standpoint. Because Haynes had to use the McDonnell-Douglas framework to prove his case, those mistakes allowed the 4th Circuit […]
By Robin Shea Employers should start gathering their 2018 compensation information if they haven’t already. My last post covered the court decision issued on March 4 in the case of National Women’s Law Center v. Office of Management and Budget, which directed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to require employers to submit compensation data with their […]
By Joe Murray Here are the 4th Circuit and North Carolina Court of Appeals’ latest employment law decisions. Gomez v. Haystax Technology, Inc., No. 17-2360 (4th Cir. March 5, 2019) (unpublished) (ADA, FMLA, Title VII, ADEA): Defendants, who are private government contractors, hired Gomez in May 2013 to work on various government contracts. During the […]
The Jonathan R. Harkavy Award Committee is accepting nominations from now until Friday, May 31. The Harkavy Award exists to recognize an individual for “Outstanding Service, Leadership, and/or Significant Contributions to the Development of Labor and Employment Law in North Carolina.” After completing the nomination form, please submit it, along with any other materials you […]
By Sean F. Herrmann Gender discrimination in international team sports has long been a fraught issue, and US soccer is no exception. The US Senior Men’s National Soccer Team (“MNT”) hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire. The MNT didn’t even qualify for the most recent World Cup. Yet, year after year, and decade […]
By Kevin P. Murphy North Carolina law imposes stringent requirements on employee drug testing. But courts have long held that employers who fire employees on the basis of false positives are not liable for the employees’ harms and losses. Last week, the South Carolina Supreme Court changed all that. The Court held that laboratories owe […]
By Robin Shea A federal judge in the District of Columbia has ordered that the pay data collection component of EEO-1 reports, which never took effect, be restored. Background The pay data survey, proposed in early 2016 during the Obama Administration, would require employers to report in their annual EEO-1 reports the number of employees […]
By Joe Murray Time for our regular case roundup. The 4th Circuit issued several important decisions over the past two months, including clarifying the standard for retaliation claims under the False Claims Act, allowing rumors to support a Title VII claim, and providing two clashing opinions on medical exams of current employees.