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Employment Law

Now brewing at Camden café: a sexual harassment suit

08/01/2007

New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights has filed suit against City Coffee, a café in downtown Camden, following numerous complaints of sexual harassment. Six former employees claim that café owner Ronald Ford Jr. repeatedly touched them and asked them to have sex with him. The women alleged that Ford carefully conducted all his inappropriate acts out of view of surveillance cameras in the small café …

Attention Wal-Mart managers: Beware of class-Action lawsuits

08/01/2007

Over the past few years, large companies such as Microsoft, Abercrombie and Fitch, Intel, Federal Express, UPS, IKEA and Burger King have been involved in multimillion dollar class-action lawsuits for violating state and federal wage-and-hour laws. Now add Wal-Mart to that list …

Hourly bonuses for salaried employees?

08/01/2007

Q. I employ a physical therapist on a salaried basis, making her an exempt professional under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Can I pay her an hourly bonus without causing her to lose the exempt status? …

Can we fire for incomplete medical cert?

08/01/2007

Q. An employee recently has contracted a serious health condition for which she requests FMLA leave. The medical certification form, completed by her physician, does not indicate the probable duration of her condition. Can we suspend the employee for the physician’s failure to submit a sufficiently complete medical certification form? …

No witness needed for disciplinary meeting

08/01/2007

Q. I run a large restaurant and employ only nonunion workers. Recently, I called one of the waiters into my office to issue him a warning for arriving late for his shifts. He told me he had a right to have one of the cooks there witness our exchange. Is he right? …

Document elements of exempt position to knock down FLSA claims

08/01/2007

Winning Fair Labor Standards Act cases involving employees who claim they shouldn’t have been classified as exempt usually means being able to document exactly what employees do on the job and the conditions under which they work …

Philly police officer may not wear Muslim head scarf

08/01/2007

A federal judge has ruled that a Philadelphia police officer does not have the right to wear a hijab, or head scarf, when she is in uniform. Kimberlie Webb, an officer since 1995, was suspended after showing up three times at roll call wearing her hijab, despite being told not to. The EEOC filed suit against the Philadelphia police department …

Restaurant owner learns price of harassment: $40,750

08/01/2007

Three female employees of the Crazy Horse Steak House in New Oxford will share $40,750 for harassment allegedly committed by owner Nicholas Mavros. The women claimed Mavros commented on their breasts, asked what color underwear they were wearing, invited them to come to a motel to have sex, touched them against their wishes and even put his hands down an employee’s pants …

The whole truth: Discrimination costs Philips Lighting $164,850

08/01/2007

A female temporary worker on a long-term assignment for NJ-based Philips Lighting Co. won a $164,850 verdict for gender discrimination against the company. The woman, who worked in the warehouse of the company’s Mountaintop, PA, plant, claimed the company offered full-time positions only to male temps. She asked about full-time employment several times and was told she was next in line. Instead, she was fired …

High-Rolling exec wagers $6.4 million, wins jail time

08/01/2007

After losing $50,000 in Las Vegas, Nestlé sales executive Henry Machinski, fearful of telling his wife, launched a scheme with gambling buddy Vincent Marchese, an Allentown grocer. They created a fictitious company, AP Foods. Machinski wrote checks to AP Foods for Nestlé promotional payments, which the pair then cashed and split …