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A federal employment lawsuit filed in California alleges two African American workers faced racial discrimination at work while employed at a North Carolina data center for tech-giant Facebook. According to Fortune magazine, the two workers say the company’s leaders failed to immediately respond to repeated complaints of harassment.office1

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and alleges the company allowed retaliation against the two employees who were reporting racial discrimination. One is a current employee and another still works at the data center.

Specifically, the two say a facility manger repeatedly used racial slurs to refer to black workers. They also assert they were paid less than white colleagues, and that these trespasses took place over the course of three years of employment. They are asking for damages in excess of $25,000, plus punitive damages, for each plaintiff. A spokesperson for the company alleges the claims are without merit. Interestingly, the company does not deny racial discrimination took place. Rather, the assertion is that the company responded appropriately. Continue Reading ›

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The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing reports that since 2012, there have been 90 age-related complaints filed against the 12 top technology companies in Silicon Valley. phone

This tells us two things:

  • Age discrimination is commonplace in the technology industry.
  • The graying workforce isn’t staying quiet about it.

Age discrimination lawsuits nationally are on the rise, as Baby Boomers are reaching and working beyond the age of 65. The New York Times detailed the fact that in 2015, there were 21,000 age discrimination complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Only a small percentage of those actually go to court, and proving these claims at trial is often a challenge. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that in cases of demotion or dismissal, workers have to prove that age was the motivating factor. That can be tough for a few reasons. One is that we’re often talking about colleagues who may have known each other for a long time and have worked together closely for years. The second is that there is not usually a so-called “smoking gun” that clearly shows age was the motivation. Continue Reading ›

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit recently heard arguments in the LGBT discrimination case of Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, a case that could have profound implications for the future of gay rights as it may well end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. holdhands

It’s actually the second time the 7th Circuit has weighed Hively. It previously issued a judgment in favor of the defense, but agreed to reconsider its findings after closer consideration.

The key question is whether the worker, Hively, is protected by Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and can take action against a company that refused her advancement at work the basis of her sexual orientation as a lesbian. As it now stands, federal workplace laws do not protect people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, though some state-level laws do. California prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender in the realms of employment, housing and public accommodations.  Continue Reading ›

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A wage-and-hour lawsuit filed in Texas by a nurse at a large hospital alleges the health system docks the pay of nurses each shift for 30 minutes, but they aren’t actually allowed a 30-minute meal break. Instead, nurses are expected to remain on duty for the duration of their shift. nurse

According to the Houston Chronicle, plaintiff is seeking class-action status for her and 4,000 other nurses who she says should be paid for the time they spend with patients on “phantom” lunch breaks. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Houston. Plaintiff asserts the hospital system’s payroll program automatically takes out 30 minutes for meal periods every shift, even though nurses don’t actually get 30 minutes uninterrupted in any given shift. Instead, nurses have to be available the entire shift to care for and attend to patients.

In California, the Department of Industrial Relations holds that companies can’t force an employee to work more than five hours in a given day without providing the worker meal breaks of at least 30 minutes. The only exception is if the worker’s entire work day is no more than six hours. In that case, the meal break can be waived – but only if both the employer and employee mutually consent to it. Further, workers are entitled to a second, 30-minute meal break after 10 hours, except if the employee is going to be working no more than 12 hours and there is mutual consent from both employee and company. (Some variations exist within the motion picture industry.) Continue Reading ›

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The AARP, a consumer advocacy group that focuses on the rights and well-being of older people, has filed a lawsuit alleging employee wellness programs may violate workers’ rights and be used to violate anti-age discrimination laws. exercise

Named as a defendant in the lawsuit is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which recently released a new rule on employer wellness programs as they relate to Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

For those who may not be familiar, employee wellness programs involve companies extending major financial incentives to workers who sign up as an effort to improve their health, often through weight loss, smoking cessation and exercise programs. Workers save on health costs and companies get to help lower their long-term insurance premiums. The problem, says the AARP, is that a lot of the health-related programs and activities involve assessments of medically-sensitive information about workers, such as the results of biometric screening, which is then often passed on to the company.  Continue Reading ›

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A former employee of President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s golf club in New Jersey is suing the mogul and his company for what he calls “extreme” LGBT harassment and discrimination. golfing

According to The Advocate, plaintiff worked in maintenance at New Jersey’s Trump National Golf Club two years ago. There he alleges his co-workers frequently used highly-offensive, anti-gay slurs against him in both English and Spanish. One of his fellow workers allegedly threw a rock at his head, which resulted in his needing treatment at a local hospital.

The lawsuit was filed in state court specifically alleges sexual orientation harassment, discrimination based on his sexual orientation, hostile work environment and unlawful retaliation. He also filed claims for assault and battery. He asserts his immediate supervisor directly observed his mistreatment, and yet did nothing to intervene. After the rock-throwing incident, plaintiff filed a formal complaint with his managers. At that time, his supervisor assured him the issue would be “dealt with.” However, when plaintiff went back to the manager to get further information for a police report he planned to file against his attacker, the manager refused to cooperate. Plaintiff then informed the manger he did not feel physically safe going to work after he was attacked by a co-worker, at which point he was promptly fired.  Continue Reading ›

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For allegedly conspiring with other studios to “fix” the wages of workers to an artificially low rate, the DreamWorks animation company has agreed to pay $50 million. artists

DreamWorks filed a motion for a preliminary settlement in U.S. District Court, which if accepted would be the largest sum to date in a case that raises issues about the employment practices of all Hollywood animation studios.

The proposed settlement considered two others approved earlier this year involving Sony Pictures and Blue Sky Studios (owned by Twentieth Century Fox), which each agreed to pay visual effects producers and animators a combined $19 million for similar allegations of wage-fixing. These agreements stem from a class action lawsuit filed two years ago by a senior character effects artists for DreamWorks as well as a clothes and hair technical director for Sony. More plaintiffs later joined the action, alleging the animation studios conspired together to fix the wages and keep career opportunities stagnant for animators, software engineers, digital artists and other workers with technical expertise. Others named in the lawsuit include Lucasfilm, Pixar, ImageMovers Digital and Disney.  Continue Reading ›

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Amazon is working to shift its logistics duties away from parcel services like UPS and FedEx and more toward trucking company contractors. But now, the e-commerce company is facing legal challenges from those truck drivers who allege in their wage lawsuit that Amazon is a joint employer because of the level of control Amazon has over these workers.trucks

We saw this same legal reasoning in a recent California federal lawsuit against McDonald’s Corp., which agreed to pay a franchisee’s workers $3.75 million to settle a wage-and-hour class action lawsuit filed by workers who alleged the company had joint employer status because it controlled so many elements of the job. Meanwhile, McDonald’s has another case pending before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is considering allegations of unfair labor practices as the joint employer of workers at franchise locations.

As the U.S. Department of Labor has laid out, joint employment exists when a worker is employed by two or more employers, such that the employers are responsible – individually and jointly – to comply with laws ensuring worker rights. Determining whether a company is a joint employer can be a complex process, and it involves an analysis of issues like:

  • Does the other employer supervise, control or direct the work?
  • Do employers share supervisory authority over workers?
  • Do employers treat employees as a pool of workers available to both?
  • Do they share customers or clients?
  • Is the employee’s work integral to the other employee’s business?
  • Are employer operations intermingled?

Continue Reading ›

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Three women who reached settlements in their gender discrimination claims against a city and local police department in Iowa say that while the compensation has vindicated them, they have lost much over the last few years. They lost their jobs, of course. But says her once promising career was effectively ended. All say their lives won’t ever be the same.police

One described it as the most difficult time her life. She used to wonder why women wouldn’t come forward with complaints about discrimination, why it was so under-reported. Now, sadly, she knows.

“You’re second-guessed and your told that you’re making things up,” she said. “You’re told that you’re crazy.”  Continue Reading ›

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A former engineer for Tesla Motors Inc. has sued the vehicle technology firm in a California federal court, asserting he was wrongly terminated for his age. As evidence, he cites a number of unfair criticisms and comments about his age from both co-worker and supervisors. office

The 69-year-old worker was a one-time contract employee who became full-time at the company’s facility in Fremond. Two of this three bosses reportedly made negative comments about his age. When he was fired in February, he alleges his age was a primary factor.

The employment lawsuit isn’t all that surprising. In fact, many technology companies in Silicon Valley have been facing down similar allegations. For example, IBM, Google, Twitter and Microsoft have all been defendants in California age discrimination lawsuits. Older workers say the companies disregard their valuable experience and instead bring in younger – and often more attractive and cheaper – workers.  Continue Reading ›

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