Introduction In April 2016, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey joined eight other state attorneys general in sending out information and document requests to large, national retail chains that assign their employees to work “on-call” shifts. This multi-state effort comes on the heels of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s largely successful 2015 campaign to
Last month, Alexis P. Theriault wrote about the First Circuit’s decision in Schwann v. FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. In Schwann, the First Circuit held that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (“FAAAA”) preempts a portion of the Massachusetts independent contractor statute, thereby making it easier for delivery services – like FedEx – to
According to a December 2015 press release, in Fiscal Year 2014 alone, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) resolved approximately 200 charges of discrimination based on HIV status, resulting in over $825,000 for job applicants and employees with HIV who were unlawfully denied employment or reasonable accommodations. See December 1, 2015 EEOC Press Release.
Since the advent of modern class action litigation in the 1960s, companies have struggled to stem the tide of these time-consuming and expensive lawsuits. Consider the following strategy. After learning that a plaintiff has filed a putative class action against it, the company offers to fully and completely compensate the named plaintiff for its injuries,
Introduction Most employers will, at some point, have occasion to consider whether an individual who performs services for the employer is an “independent contractor” or an “employee.” How an employer classifies an individual is crucial to the employer’s compliance with wage and hour laws, discrimination statutes, workers’ compensation requirements, mandatory affirmative action programs, and a