New York Employment Attorneys Blog

As we near the repeal of the government's long standing discriminatory policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for gays in the military, it is becoming clearer just how much these discriminatory policies have effected both the abilities of gays to serve, as well as the impact on our nation's military. While a new survey of Armed Force's personal revealed that most service members surveyed do not care about gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, the policy continues to stand.

A former Marine, Anuradha K. Bhagwati, writes over at WNYC.org on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and the specific and targeting impact that the policy has upon women and minorities within the military:

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) has long fed off the hatred of unwanted and vulnerable personnel, namely, women and people of color. Since the inception of the policy, servicewomen have been disproportionately impacted compared to their male counterparts. While the proportion of men discharged under DADT has decreased steadily over time, the proportion of women discharged has increased."

You can read all of Bhagwati's article on DADT here: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/its-free-blog/2010/nov/30/sexist-and-racist-lurk-dont-ask-dont-tell-enforcement/, and come back for continuing updates on the status of the DADT repeal.

A new law protecting domestic workers has gone into effect in New York State, guaranteeing expanded rights for these employees. After campaigning for the most basic protections, like paid vacation and sick days, overtime pay and other basic rights that most employees take for granted, domestic workers are finally gaining well-deserved employment rights.

The new law requires that workers be paid for all hours worked beyond 40 hours in a week, a requirement that previously did not apply to domestic workers. The new law also provides for basic protection against sexual harassment and hostile work environment, and provides recourse for unlawful termination in violation of this law.

While the law does extend important protections to domestic workers, it is by no means comprehensive. The law protects workers from certain discrimination, based on national origin, religion or sex but does apply the broader protections of New York State law on age discrimination or sexual orientation discrimination.

The law is a step forward for domestic workers, who are often put in difficult work situations due to the intimate nature of their arrangements. But, there is still a long way to go in creating true equality for domestic workers. We urge our leaders in the New York State Senate and Assembly to push for further rights for the state's domestic workers.

Just a quick reminder to all employees that work for hourly wages- just because the holidays are extremely busy times for many industries such as retail, there is no excuse for your employer to not pay overtime. Make sure that when working overtime that your employer intends to pay for hours worked in excess, and that you are provided with adequate rest breaks to compensate for the longer hours. Read more on wage and hour law here.

Revised statistics released this week showed that the US gross domestic product for the third quarter of 2010 beat estimates and grew at a rate of 2.5 percent. This growth signals the fact that corporations are showing ever-increasing profits, and that the recession may be on the way out. On top of this, corporate profits are surging up to $1.66 trillion dollars from the previous year.

Unfortunately for workers and unemployed Americans, this also demonstrates that these corporations are creating these profits by using recession-era cuts to get more out of a harder-worked, diminished workforce while unemployment continues to grip the country. Companies are focusing on the bottom line and not on putting this country back to work, and are squeezing the few employees with jobs to work harder and make up the difference.

When pressed as to why these companies are not creating jobs, most respond that the economy is still uncertain. However, the only uncertainty for many of these corporations and their executives is how to spend the mountains of cash that they have amassed by maintaining production with a lower work forces. The focus on profits over jobs is incredibly disappointing, and shows the ever increasing gulf between the haves and have-nots in this current economic climate.

In what has become a seemingly weekly occurrence, another New York City restaurant has been accused of wage and hour violations, as well as allegations of tip misappropriation.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court, Southern District of New York, alleges that the restaurant failed to pay proper overtime to it's employees throughout the chains New York City locations. The lawsuit alleges that the chain violated a rarely used provision of wage and hour law, called the "spread of hours" pay, which requires tipped employees to receive at least one hour at full minimum wage for all hours worked over ten hours in a given day.

The lawsuit could have a potentially huge impact on both the chain, which operates eight locations in the New York City area and is currently expanding, as well as raising awareness of this law for tipped employees across the state.

The suit, if given class action status, could swell with numerous current and past employees being eligible to be class members.

Check out our site for more information on wage and hour laws, and find out if your employer is in compliance with the State and Federal guidelines for overtime and pay: FLSA/Wage and Hour Cases.

Now that the holidays are upon us, its time to turn attention to office holiday parties! While these events can and should be a fun time for coworkers to celebrate the holidays together and relax, these parties can often get out of hand and create embarrassing situations.

Most notably, the mixing of alcohol and coworkers can create undesirable work situations. Employees want to make sure they don't over do it this holiday season-- no one wants to make a fool of themselves in front of their coworkers. Worse, if a situation gets out of hand it could be grounds for an reprimand, or other negative employment action.

As well, the mix of alcohol and coworkers can lead to other awkward encounters. Alcohol can lead to unwanted sexual harassment and inappropriate touching. A reminder that alcohol is never an excuse for this type of behavior. Further, laws against sexual harassment go beyond regular office conduct, and would cover any sort of conduct at official holiday parties.

No one wants to be a party-pooper- this holiday season be mindful and your holiday office parties should go off without a hitch.

A sign of the increasing number of employment related cases making their way through the courts, the US Supreme Court now has three cases involving the alleged wrongful termination of employees. These cases, which have been argued all the way to the Nation's highest court could have an impact on future cases, and could be a sign of which way the current Supreme Court bench, including recently appointed Justice Kagan, will handle employment law matters.

The cases highlight new challenges to to employees rights. One case involves a hospital worker who was involved in Army reserve duties, and believed he was eventually terminated due to his involvement. The case hinges on the "cats-paw" theory of employment decisions, where a person responsible may not have any discriminatory animus towards the employee, but is heavily influenced to carry out the employment decision by a co-worker or superior with a discriminator reason to fire the individual.

Another case before the Supreme Court involves a husband-wife pair who were employed with the same company. After being sexually harassed at work, the wife complained about the incident. While the wife was not retaliated against, the husband was ultimately fired following the complaint. The Supreme Court will evaluate the rights of an individual linked to a complaint, but not currently protected by anti-retaliation laws. This could be a watershed case for protecting employees who speak up on behalf of others, or witness and report conduct that occurs in the workplace.

Lastly, the High Court is looking at an employee was wrongfully terminated from complaining about his company placing the punch-clock in a deliberately difficult position to reach.

All of these cases represent the frontier of employment law, and will shape the ways in which current laws are applied and possibly modified. While the Court has taken a number of anti-employee stances, most notably in the Gross v. FBL agre discrimination case, the current court with Justice Kagan may restore and expand the rights of workers.

While this blog hasn't often tackled the issue of debt and debt collectors, it remains a factor in employment decisions as raging unemployment has forced many American's into crippling debt. Debt collectors, eager to collect on payments from individuals have come up with new ways to harass and intimidate people into paying.

The newest strategy from debt collectors is utilizing social networks like Facebook. Previously, debt collectors would employee private investigators to monitor their debtors employers, friends and families. But as more and more American's take to the social network to share intimate details of their lives, debt collectors jobs have become increasingly easy.

Debt collectors and agencies have started using Facebook as a way to message a person's personal contacts, including friends and employers to let them know they have a debt to pay. This embarrassing technique is incredibly invasive, and highlights the need to understand one's online presence and privacy settings. With any website, you should be mindful of what data is publicly available and seen by anybody with an internet connection.

The stock market booms and bursts of the 1980s, rife with insider trading and other financial impropriety led to development of incentives and bounties for coming forward with information about such illegal activity. However, the New York Times reports that in the twenty-plus years since these rules were introduced less than $160,000 has been paid out to whistle-blowers. This pittance is the result of leaving the decision to give awards out to regulators who are often reluctant to levy fines against companies or pay out the so-called bounty.

Now, Congress is looking at recent fraudulent activity in the securities sector and is proposing an overhaul of the reward system for reporting illegal behavior. The new rules would require a payment whenever there are penalties in excess of $1 million dollars against a company or entity.

Naturally, businesses and trade groups are lining up against the measures. Opponents of the law say that it unfairly incentives the digging of dirt against a company, and hinders the ability of the company to actively comply with and fix any violations. Advocates for the change say that whistle-blowers have traditionally been overlooked and under-compensated, and that coming forward with such information has the effect of ruining careers and making employees miserable. Thus, they deserve a greater share of compensation for both the information, and the ultimate effect it has on their lives and careers.

You can read more on the history of rewards and financial regulation on the New York Times here.

In another sign that all areas of employment and employers find themselves on the wrong side of employment law violations, a Washington D.C. firm has been locked in a contentious lawsuit with a former employee. The employee, a 58 year old employed as a paralegal had brought suit against the firm Mayer Brown for age discrimination. The employee contends that they were responsible for a number of tasks, that were ultimately shifted to a younger employee. Ultimately, all of the job duties were transitioned to the younger employee.

To read more on the case, and on the discovery disputes that have snagged the case so far, check out The Blog Of Legal Times.

A Florida woman has filed suit against her former employer, claiming that her large breasts were a deciding factor in her termination. The employee, Amy Erin Blakely, worked for the non-profit The Devereaux Foundation in Orange County, Florida. Blakely claims that she was repeatedly harassed for being a full figured woman, and that was retaliated against after complaining about such treatment.

In one particular incident, Blakely was told by a coworker that her breasts were distracting to other workers and was causing a problem in the workplace. Further, she was instructed to cover herself up in the future so she would no longer distract other employees.

Blakely, as claimed in her lawsuit against the foundation, states that she was a long-time employee of the Devereaux Foundation and had a promising career within the organization. However, this rise was promptly halted once she began filing internal grievances against the company alleging sexual harassment.

It is interesting to note that Blakely is being represented by Debrahlee Lorenzana, the infamous Citi Bank employee who claimed she was terminated for being too attractive. To read more on sexual harassment and what your rights are, head on over to The Harman Firm's Sexual Harassment page.

Workers for Shanghai Cafe in Chinatown in Manhattan have come forward alleging years of wage and hour violations by senior management, claiming that workers were paid as little as a $1.27 an hour and that tips were withheld illegally.

Six workers, many who have been with the restaurant for years, had been fired after new owners took over the operations of Shanghai Cafe. During the transition, the employees complained to the new owners about the illegal practices. Once the issue was raised, all of the employees in question were terminated.

The food service industry seems to be plagued by employers failing to pay adequate wages, overtime and fair tip sharing. All employees, no matter what industry or line of work they are in deserve the full protection of laws guaranteeing fair treatment and pay for their work. The allegations against Shanghai Cafe are disappointing, and should be taken seriously.

For more information on what protections workers have against working excessive overtime, and rules about tip sharing check out our website here: FLSA/Wage and Hour Cases.

An energy industry executive in San Fransisco has been suspended after engaging with opponents of smart meters. William Devereaux, an executive for the Pacific Gas & Electric Company went online using a pseudonym to engage with opponents of PG&E's plan to use smart meters to measure electrical usage in the area.

Devereaux, who is the Senior Director of the smart meter plan, used the name "Ralph" to talk to opponents of the plan. However, his email address was logged when using the online commenting system giving away his true identity.

After the interaction was revealed, Devereaux was suspended with pay while PG&E investigates the situation. The incident reveals the ways in which companies are monitoring the online activities of employees, and the real world consequences of actions taken online.

Increasingly, employers are using social networks and online monitoring to closely watch what their employees are doing, both in the office and in their free time. Employers are becoming savvier at finding what and where employees are saying online, and have used such postings as reasons for suspensions, terminations and other adverse employment actions.

Employees should be mindful of the fact that much of what is posted online is viewable by everyone, and should use social networks with this in mind.

What is going on over at Fox News? We've previously written about Catherine Herridge, who complained of sexual harassment and gender discrimination while employed with the network, and now a technician has come forward alleging racial discrimination.

The employee, Harmeen Jones, who is black, reports having racist comments directed at him. Jones says that workers were watching footage of Tea Party rallies and commented that "This is what happens when you mess with white people's health care." Comments were also directed at him discussing other workers unease with having a black president, and instances where he was called a "gangster" and looked ready to shoot someone.

The suit alleges that this behavior was part of a pattern of abuse that was permissive in Fox News headquarters in Manhattan. Jones seeks $5 million dollars in damages following his termination from the network after repeated complaints about the abuse and harassment.

We've previously looked at Hollaback, a website dedicated to exposing sexual harassers and other creeps online. Hollaback allows users to posts pictures and stories about unwanted encounters with strangers, and bring these abuses to light.

Now, the site has unveiled an iPhone app which allows users to instantly geo-tag the the location of the incident, as well as send a follow up email to the user requesting more information on what happened, and for a description of the harasser.

The MTA has recently tried to raise awareness of how such behavior is not acceptable, and encouraging the victims of harassment to come forward. However, these are only the first steps in making sure that the harassment of women in New York City and beyond stops. Hollback, and the accompanying apps, work to shame men who do such things and let them know that people are watching and will find them.

To learn more about the Hollaback project and iPhone app, check out their website here and the New York Times profile on Hollaback.

Under New York State law, domestic workers such as housekeepers, childcare providers and other such workers are denied collective bargaining rights. This means that these workers are not allowed to organize and demand better workplace conditions, and negotiate for similar protections that are given to other workers.

At a rally in Manhattan, members of Domestic Workers United came together to demand these same protections. Many members spoke of the need for collective bargaining agreements after they were repeatedly mistreated and abused by their employers, forced to work long hours with no overtime pay, or fired with only little notice.

Many members in attendance also praised the passing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, that was passed at the end of August and will go into effect at the end of the month. This bill addresses some of the lapses in protections for domestic workers, including guaranteed days off, workers compensation insurance and overtime pay after 40 hours.

Read more on the rally and on the new law over at Labor Notes.

The Republicans took the House on Tuesday, but failed to take the Senate. While many are concerned with the possibility of a Government shutdown and gridlock, the shift may have an impact on Obama's pro-worker agenda.

While Obama had success in passing such pro-employee measures such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act early in his term, the new Congress led by Rep. Boehner will not be as friendly to such policies. Republicans have typically sided with big business in pushing for legislature that works to empower employers and corporations at the expense of the workers.

Future legislation, especially those involving expanding the roles of Unions and other measures that support equality and fairness, such as the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and other laws aimed at giving gays and their partners equal rights may be in danger of being blocked.

The Harman Firm is deeply committed to employees rights and Civil Rights for all Americans. We will be sure to keep you updated on any legislative news that can impact the rights of working Americans.

A 60-year old musician has recently filed a lawsuit against the Young Concert Artists organization alleging age discrimination. The musician, recently let go from his position in the New York City Ballet orchestra, contends that the Young Concert Artists policy of only allowing musicians up to the age of 26 audition is an example of age discrimination.

While this suit may have been filed solely for attention, as some journalists have been quick to point out, it does raise interesting questions about age limits in the preforming arts. Is it ethical to place age limits on the individuals able to audition for specific orchestras? In this case, the Young Concert Artists exists to showcase the talents of musicians that are still developing and have not had as much exposure as some musicians with long careers. In this sense, these groups aim to introduce and nurture young musicians at the early stages of their playing careers, and thus an age cap makes a great deal of sense.

What do you think? Should there be laws against age limits in orchestras designed at young performers, or are these groups and caps necessary to the development of future generations of musicians?

A Chicago based American Airlines maintenance worker has filed a lawsuit alleging lewd sexual harassment and assault carried out by supervisors and managers. The maintenance worker, base out of Chicago's O'Hare airport has come forward saying that she was routinely harassed and groped by her coworkers while employed maintaining planes at one of the nations busiest airports.

The suit alleges that the harassment began as she started working the overnight shift preforming routine maintenance on aircraft. When she complained, her shift was changed. The plaintiff alleges that this deprived her of time with her family, and the complaints resulted in her being passed up for requested transfers and promotions.

Read more on the suit here: American Airlines staffer sexually harassed