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Employment Law

Many serious conditions don’t amount to disabilities

05/01/2008
The ADA protects only truly disabled employees from discrimination. It isn’t enough that someone has been diagnosed with a medical condition—even a serious-sounding one like diabetes or a hepatitis infection. Each ADA case is judged on how the illness affects the individual …

Equal Pay Act claims may hit employers by surprise

05/01/2008
Employers may think last year’s U.S. Supreme Court Ledbetter decision means employees can’t wait years before complaining about sex discrimination if the issue is pay. Surprise! It’s not always true …

You sometimes can boost benefits during union election

05/01/2008
As a general rule, once a union organizing drive is under way at a nonunion workplace, management can’t make any changes to the terms and conditions of employment. But what if the changes management wants to make are ones that the company has routinely made around that same time of year? …

Returning soldiers entitled to equivalent jobs, but not necessarily their old ones

05/01/2008
The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is being tested in court, and employers are finding that judges are becoming more flexible when it comes to employers’ rights to manage the work force while soldiers are away …

Gov. Paterson accused of race discrimination

05/01/2008
Incoming Gov. David Paterson hadn’t even taken his oath of office before he was hit with allegations of race discrimination during his term as Senate Democratic leader. Joseph Maiorello, a former Senate minority photographer, has filed an EEOC lawsuit alleging Paterson fired him because he is white …

Careful what you wish for at IBM

05/01/2008
Victory wasn’t so sweet for thousands of employees who sued Armonk-based IBM claiming the company had illegally classified them as exempt. IBM agreed to reclassify them, making them eligible for overtime pay. The catch? The company cut their salaries by 15% …

Allied Aviation pays $1.9 million to settle discrimination case

05/01/2008
Allied Aviation Services Inc., a New York-based provider of fuel services, settled an EEOC lawsuit for $1.9 million, following claims of persistent race discrimination at its facility at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport …

AAM strike rocks GM operations across North America

05/01/2008
A strike by workers at five American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings (AAM) plants in New York and Michigan led to temporary closures at more than a dozen General Motors plants in February and March …

Brooklyn bookseller pays $180,000 for discrimination

05/01/2008
Michael Schmuely, owner of Books for Less, a wholesale bookseller in Brooklyn, will pay $180,000 to 21 former employees to settle a federal race discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Schmuely frequently used the “n” word and referred to the warehouse as a “plantation” …

Can we enforce noncompetes against staff we’ve laid off?

05/01/2008
Q. Due to the competitive nature of our business, our sales force signs restrictive covenant agreements that prohibit them from working for a competitor for a six- month period. We are about to lay off some of these employees for lack of business. Is the covenant enforceable? …