The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a law that requires certain employers to provide qualifying employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. This blog post is Part I of a series of posts providing a basic overview of the FMLA. Part I provides an overview of: what employees/employers are ...
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Protects Public Employees’ Right to Privacy Concerning Home Addresses
Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits the release of public school employees’ home addresses when requested under the Right to Know Law. The decision, PSEA v. Commonwealth, represents a significant victory for all public employees in ...
Restraints on Workers’ Compensation Statute Invalidated
There has been increasing movement on a national basis to reduce workers’ compensation benefits in various ways. These have taken the form of, for example, reductions in benefits, exclusions of certain conditions from coverage, more stringent reporting requirements, reduced eligibility periods, and ...
NLRB: Columbia University Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants Have Collective Bargaining Rights Under NLRA
On August 23, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board held in Columbia University that teaching and research assistants at Columbia University are employees and entitled to collective bargaining rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Thanks to the Board’s Columbia ...
Decision in Vergara v. California Hands Major Victory to Teachers and Teacher Unions
On Monday, August 22, 2016, the highest state court in California, the California Supreme Court, voted 4 to 3 to decline hearing an appeal in a lawsuit challenging California’s teacher protection laws. In what is a major victory for teachers and teacher unions, the California Supreme Court ruled in ...
Chicago to Provide Paid Sick Leave
On June 22, 2016, Chicago City Council voted to amend the Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance to provide paid sick leave to more than 400,000 Chicago workers. Starting on July 1, 2017, Chicago workers will accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked, capped at five paid sick days per ...
What Job Seekers Need to Know About Criminal Background Checks
Interviewing for a job can be stressful enough when you have only the present and future to worry about. But when a potential employer looks at your past – and it will – that can multiply the stress tenfold, especially if there are elements of your personal history, such as a past arrest and/or a ...
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Class Action Lawsuit
A class action lawsuit, also known as a collective action lawsuit, is a case brought against an entity on behalf of many individuals, all of whom have been subject to the same illegal practice by the defendant. In employment cases, this usually occurs when an employer makes unreasonable or ...