New York Employment Attorneys Blog

In a recent and divided decision, the Supreme Court said that there is no automatic right to counsel for people charged with civil contempt for failing to pay child support.

Michael D. Turner, the Plaintiff from South Carolina, was held in civil contempt and jailed for as much as a year for not paying child support. He argued that he was too poor to pay and that a lawyer could have helped him avoid being jailed.

Yet, in previous cases, Courts have ruled that poor people facing jail for crimes must be provided with a lawyer. Why was it any different in the present case? These decisions were rooted in the Sixth Amendment, only applicable to criminal proceedings and not to civil cases.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled to block a class-action sex discrimination suit against the retail giant Wal-Mart. But many still believe that the authoritarian lifestyle enforced by company policy results in clear cut gender discrimination.

Wal-Mart has long been anti-union, which has lowered workers' bargaining power on a large scale. Consequently, Wal-Mart has been forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for labor law violations that went unnoticed or uncorrected for too long, mostly in the form of wage and hour violations. Being anti-union has also led to many other Wal-Mart policies surviving that would not last long at other companies.

One such policy is one regarding internal promotions to management. Wal-Mart insists through its company policy that all workers promoted to salaried management positions move to new stores, which often happen to be over hundreds of miles away. This policy, while it may hinder the lifestyles of young many, poses an insurmountable challenge to many women with young children or families. This policy, many Wal-Mart employees say, is tantamount to gender discrimination, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Do you feel your company has a policy that facilitates discrimination in the workplace? Speak with an attorney today.

Never mind breastfeeding in public. The mere knowledge that a woman breastfeeds her children, at all, leads people to view her as less competent in the workplace and less good at math, according to a recent study.

In one of several experiments testing attitudes toward breastfeeding, 60 students were told they'd be forming general impressions of other people, based on a brief meeting and reading of a short profile. Each met a woman whose profile described her as a married transfer student and psychology major. During the course of the experiment, this woman--actually a confederate of the researchers-- checked her voicemail and played out loud a friendly message that varied in one way: It expressed understanding that the woman wanted to push back a social event because she had to go home to 1) breastfeed her baby; 2) give a baby a bath (emphasizing her motherhood but not breastfeeding) ; 3) change into a strapless bra (emphasizing the sexuality of the breasts); or for an unexplained reason.

The students rated the "breastfeeding" woman lowest of the four on overall competence, workplace capabilities, math ability--and also whether they'd hire her, if they were in a position to do so. Read more about breastfeeding in the workplace.

A New York non profit group terminated five employees after the employees took to Facebook to complain about co-workers and working conditions. This case, the first-ever federally filed complaint against a company based on comments made on Facebook, is set to be heard on June 22 before and administrative law judge in Buffalo. Although a handful of cases have opened up since the last year, many have settled out of court.

In a recent case, Goodman v. L.A. Weight Loss Ctrs., a 350 pound man was denied a position at L.A. Weight Loss Centers, Inc., despite being the most qualified person for the job. The reason given? L.A. Weight Loss Centers, Inc. is "image conscious." Ultimately, the court found that the applicant was not protected by the ADA (which protects people with disabilities) because he was not regarded to be unable to perform a wide range of tasks.