New England Biz Law Update
State workers who refused to join the public employees’ union were not entitled to recoup union “agency fees” that they were compelled to pay before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such arrangements were unconstitutional, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court ...
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Manager fired for ‘poor’ sales can pursue age bias claims
The former sales manager for a regional food distributor can proceed with state law age discrimination claims despite undisputed evidence that he was hired when he was 65 and fired by the same person who hired him after his first-year ...
Read More »Bid to end professor’s suit cites to ‘ministerial exception’
A case recently argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court pits the religious freedom of a Christian college against a professor’s right to seek redress for alleged workplace discrimination. Specifically, the SJC in DeWeese-Boyd v. Gordon College, et al. was ...
Read More »Judge: remote-working exec doesn’t support jurisdiction
Massachusetts courts did not have personal jurisdiction in a contract dispute between foreign tech companies based on the fact that the chief operating officer of the New Hampshire plaintiff worked remotely in Boston, a U.S. District Court judge determined. The ...
Tagged with: employment law Personal jurisdiction Remote work
Read More »Anticipating COVID vaccine, employers ponder best course
With several U.S. pharmaceutical companies now conducting large-scale COVID-19 vaccine trials, employment lawyers are beginning to field queries from their corporate clients on whether their employees should be required to take the vaccine once it becomes available. As a general ...
Tagged with: employment law
Read More »Unions can’t charge non-members for lobbying expenses
A private sector union could not use agency fees collected from non-members to pay for lobbying expenses, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has determined. In 2009, intervenor Jeanette Geary, a nurse who had quit the United Nurses & ...
Tagged with: Labor law National Labor Relations Board
Read More »Energy company covered for losses due to town-ordered shutdown
An energy company’s insurance covered lost revenue from a town-ordered shutdown of more than 11,000 solar panels in response to a fire that damaged only 88 panels, a U.S. District Court judge has determined. The plaintiff, NextSun Energy Littleton, operated ...
Tagged with: Business interruption insurance Business law
Read More »Plaintiff lacks standing to sue over ex-employer’s background check
A plaintiff lacked standing to sue her former employer under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act for conducting a background check when she was hired that did not technically comply with the statute’s disclosure requirements, a U.S. District Court judge ...
Read More »Arbitrator to decide arbitrability of employee’s sex-bias claim
It was up to an arbitrator and not a judge to determine whether a mandatory arbitration agreement signed by an unpaid intern governed a sex discrimination/retaliation claim that arose after she became a paid employee, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled. ...
Tagged with: Arbitration employment law
Read More »‘Misclassified’ field techs can sue for wages, OT under FLSA
A subcontractor that hired field technicians to install cable, phone and internet for Cox Communications customers misclassified the workers as independent contractors, a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has found. Defendant M+M Communications required the workers to attend ...
Tagged with: employment law Fair Labor Standards Act
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