Those who have followed the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) over the past few years may be aware that there was a period of time when the majority of the 5-member Board consisted of “recess appointments” by President Obama. In other words, because Washington gridlock resulted in the President being unable to obtain Senate approval […]
EEOC and US Department of Labor Shutter Their Doors
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Labor have both announced that virtually all of their functions have temporarily ceased, pending adoption of a budget for FY 2014 by the federal government. Although the EEOC will allow claims to be filed so as to protect claimants from missing filing deadlines, no claims will […]
Federal Court Confirms Unpaid Internships Are Illegal
In a ruling last week, a federal judge in New York confirmed what has long been predicted on this website (see here and here): that unpaid internships that are not provided for educational course credit, and that are not otherwise designed primarily to benefit the intern, are illegal. Thus, production assistants who worked as unpaid […]
EEOC Sues Over Criminal Background Checks
In a previous post here, I noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, had begun to focus on criminal background checks by employers. The thinking is that requiring criminal background checks can constitute illegal discrimination on the basis of race because a higher percentage of African Americans than Caucasians have criminal convictions. Thus, […]
Supreme Court Rules that a Wage & Hour Collective Action Can Be Mooted by an Offer to Pay the Lead Plaintiff in Full
In Genesis Healthcare v. Symczyk, decided April 16, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a group, or collective, action to recover unpaid wages can be mooted by an employer’s offer to have judgment entered against it for the full amount of the lead plaintiff’s unpaid wages and reasonable attorney’s fees, if the court overseeing […]
