Law Roundtable

Appropriately enough given the venue, Daniel Schwartz at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog has one of the first substantive analyses of this morning's Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano (S.Ct. 6/29/09) [pdf].

He also gives good counsel about not rushing to conclusions about the ...

One of the blogs I follow is from PJHLaw, a Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK law firm that refers to itself as "Exclusively Employment Law Solicitors". Today, they had an interesting summary of 2008 awards in discrimination cases, Equal Opportunities Review.

The key numbers -

Average/ Median Compensation Awards ...

Last Friday, the Oregon House passed SB 519 a bill that was passed earlier this month by the Oregon Senate. As passed, the bill would preclude an employer from mandating that an employee attend certain meetings.

The bill prohibits:

An employer or the employer's agent,representative or designee ...

One of the more anticipated decisions of this Supreme Court was going to answer under what circumstances a mixed-motive decision would be appropriate. Since the whole procedural law of mixed-motive cases seems muddled, help from the Supremes on any aspect was eagerly anticipated.

But today in

Hardly a surprise I suppose, but Tom Pauken, Chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission which handles unemployment claims in Texas, has confirmed that employers should be prepared for a substantial rise in their unemployment tax rate.

According to a story in today's Dallas Morning News:

Pauken said that though ...

A reader of my post last week, Arbitration Fairness Act - A Fatal Linkage for Employers, would be forgiven for not understanding that there is a third interest group other than employment and consumer transactions in which arbitration would be banned if the bill passes.

That ban would ...

Speaking to a labor rally before an important speech to the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, Senator Specter said he knew that if you want to be elected in Pennsylvania, you have to come to labor.

And then there was this exchange on EFCA:

"You want ...

The Arbitration Fairness Act would eliminate pre-dispute arbitration agreements in consumer, franchise and employee matters. I have long argued that because everyone (including me) does not like them snuck into the fine print of consumer agreements that employers were going to be in trouble unless they could break the linkage ...

In a lengthy opinion, the 5th Circuit today reversed summary judgment for the employer where the district court found plaintiff's chronic fatigue syndrome was not a disability under the ADA. EEOC v. Chevron (5th Cir. 6/5/09) [pdf].

The Court also reversed the alternative holding that plaintiff's ...

I, like many noticed a story that was circulating yesterday from a California radio station that Senator Feinstein D-CA had made major news in a meeting with Santa Clarita Chamber of Commerce members by announcing that she would not support EFCA in any form. For anyone ...