New York Employment Attorneys Blog

In August 2011, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that four Caucasian flight engineers can pursue their employment discrimination claims in New York, against a Japanese air cargo carrier.

"In [the case of] Baker v. Nippon Cargo Airlines, 09-CV-3374 (RRM), four former flight engineers sued for discrimination, based on national origin, race, and age, when they were fired, while their younger, Japanese counterparts were offered new opportunities when Nippon Cargo Airlines changed its equipment."

The Court held that the case should remain under New York jurisdiction due to three of the Plaintiffs having a New York choice of law provision in their written employment agreements which preserves jurisdiction for any suits arising from the employment based on the agreement. While none of the Plaintiffs live in New York, their employment is based at the NCA hub at the John F. Kennedy International Airport located in Queens, New York.

In response to Defendants' objection to jurisdiction being held in New York, the Court states: "Surely, [D]efendants cannot be suggesting that [P]laintiffs' primary place of employment, where they 'spent most of their working hours' is in the air, and that therefore, there is no physical location that can serve as a proper forum for the litigation of plaintiffs' employment discrimination claims."

The Plaintiffs were flight engineers who had flown 747-Cargo planes for at least seven years prior to being terminated from employment. The Plaintiff's sue under federal, state and city anti-discrimination laws, including Title VII, ADEA, Sec. 1981, NYS & NYC Human Rights Law and will now be able to litigate this matter in New York Courts.

What happens when employees can't negotiate their own employment contracts? You could potentially lose a whole N.B.A. season. For months now, owners and players have been negotiating a new labor deal to satisfy various concerns raised by members of the National Basketball Association.

On October 27, 2011, negotiations seem to be looking more promising. The N.B.A. is hopeful that they will be able to have a full 82-game season schedule, despite starting the season a month late. In the event negotiations are not completed soon, the game schedule could be reduced as was done back in the 1998-1999 season, which season only contained a 50-game schedule.

The current pre-season has been completely cancelled and if the negotiations end soon, the regular season would begin December 1, 2011 and continue until sometime in April, 2012 to secure the full 82-game schedule.

Employment contracts protect the players' interests as well as the interest of the owners, and negotiations aim to satisfy all parties involved while allowing for players to move freely between teams and to allow teams to be able to hire top players in order to compete favorably in the market.

After hours of negotiations and many hours ahead, the future of a favorite American sport will depend on employment law issues.

The recent dismissal of a "popular but controversial history teacher" has stirred up a debate between parents, students, and the administration of a progressive Bronx private school. How far is a teacher allowed to go in the classroom in terms of comments to students? And who gets to decide what "how far" really is?

Barry Sirmon, a 58-year old veteran of the school and a political refuge from South Africa, made what some have called controversial and racially provocative comments to a few students. Those comments not only led to Mr. Sirmon's termination from Fieldston School, but also sparked the current controversy. Already, almost 350 of the 592 students in the school have signed a petition calling for Mr. Simon's reinstatement.

According to various employees within the school, an investigation was never even conducted regarding the comments before Mr. Sirmon was questioned by the school administration and then terminated. Additionally, although having been asked to immediately resign, Mr. Sirmon refused, asserting that he felt he had done nothing wrong.

Follow the story as it develops here.

Do you feel you have been terminated unfairly? Contact The Harman Firm today.

Ten years ago, this question did not phase people. But as social media becomes more popular, so do questions regarding what you can and can't post on Facebook, and how those comments posted will affect your employment.

Recently, Viki Knox, a public school teacher at Union High School in Union Township, New Jersey posted on her public Facebook page "homosexuality is a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation." That comment has sparked a debate about what teachers should be allowed to say on public, or even private, Facebook pages. Although no official decision has been made yet regarding Ms. Knox's future employment with the Department of Education, concerns over Ms. Knox' overall conduct within school grounds or even her ability to enforce new anti-bullying laws have been questioned by many.

Should Ms. Knox be allowed to keep her job? Furthermore, should we regulate what teachers say online, and by how much? Follow the story as it develops here.

The HALDE (Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les Discriminations - Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission), the French equivalent of the EEOC, released its annual report (in French only) in April 2011. This document highlights the differences between discrimination claims in the US and discrimination claims in France, and even in Europe in general.

By reading this report, one would notice that in France too, discrimination claims are rising, even more so than in the US. For the last three years, the number of claims brought before the HALDE has risen by 20% each year and there were 12,467 claims filed in 2010. In the US, statistics published by the EEOC show a rise of 7.12% in the number of claims between 2009 and 2010. The number of charges diminished in 2009, by 2.2% after a rise of 15.2% in 2008. There were 99,992 charges brought before the EEOC in 2010.

In 2010, the maximum amount of damages allocated by a judge in a case where the HALDE was present was 280,000€ ($394,000) for gender and pregnancy discrimination. In France, national origin and disability are the most alleged discrimination and represent respectively 27% and 20% of complaints. Because the EEOC does not consolidate statistics in the same way, it is hard to compare the data. However, race was among the primary types of alleged discrimination in 2010, with 35.9% of the claims, compared to 36.3% being retaliation claims. Disability also represents 25.2% of the claims in the US.

The HALDE aims at improving employment law and defending workers' rights. The commission issues reports and resolutions that are most of the time followed by either courts or the government. For example, the HALDE argued that it was discriminatory to require candidates who wish to pass the police entrance exam to be of a minimum stature. Thereafter, the French Government decided to remove the requirement.

Just like the EEOC, the French HALDE can also decide to file a complaint with the District Attorney when there is a discrimination claim. It can also support the employee before the Court by filing an amicus brief. Statistics show that in 81% of cases, courts will follow the commission's recommendation.

In its report, the HALDE quotes some of the examples that led the commission to file a complaint with the DA. For example, in one case, an employer refused to hire a young black painter, arguing "this young guy is black, it won't work well with clients." In another case, a recruiter wrote an e-mail to a pregnant candidate who previously been offered a job, saying: "However your application cannot be sustained in the light of the fact that you're expecting a baby, and we are delighted for you." In the latter case, the HALDE decided to file a criminal lawsuit for discriminatory refusal to hire, which is a criminal offense in France, punishable by three years imprisonment and 45,000€ fine (article 225-2 3° of the French Penal code).

In a today's decision, the Ohio Supreme Court expanded protection for workers injured on the job. An employee who is injured on the job but does not have a workers' compensation claim is nonetheless protected from retaliation.

In this case, the Plaintiff injured his back in April 2008 and got fired less than an hour after he reported the injury to the company's president. Although the worker filed suit alleging retaliation, he did not at the time file a workers' compensation claim at the time of his dismissal.

The Court ruled that the intent of the statute is to protect all injured workers, regardless of workers compensation claim status. Leaving a gap in protection before the filing of a claim would create a too disparate gap between employer and employee rights following an injury. Despite that, the Court did not find that the timing of the firing was sufficient to establish retaliation in the case.

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.

Travel writers who write about Hawaii may face a potential new challenge in their careers in the form of legislative limitations. These writers, penning books about Hawaii's more dangerous and less trodden landscapes, may face personal liability for deaths or accidents which occur at remote locations they've recommended.

Hawaii's legislature and local advocates of the new measure which puts personal liability on these travel writers suggest that the bill is not an infringement on the writers' first amendment rights but a measure which would increase safety for tourists and locals alike. Those opposing the bill say personal liability could extinguish any travel writing about Hawaii. One successful travel writer at the heart of the issue, Mr. Andrew Doughty, is considering suing the state of Hawaii and has been backed by organizations such as the Association of American Publishers in Washington and the Media Coalition. Follow the progress of this legislative measure through the Wall Street Journal.

If you feel your first amendment rights are being violated in your employment setting, contact an attorney today.

Each calendar year, Equal Pay Day falls on a different date, that date being calculated by the number of extra days women have to work to earn the same compensation as men earn by January 1. This year Equal Pay Day fell on April 12. At this rate, calculated over a span of 40 years, women will have to work 11 extra years to earn the same pay as men in the same jobs.

Here are some surprising statistics:

Jane Waldfogel, a Columbia University social work professor, founds that mothers are penalized by 4 percent with the birth of their first child, as compared to men who receive an average of 9 percent wage increase.

Single women, on average, have less than half of the "wealth," the value of personal assets minus debts, than single men.

Do you feel like you aren't being compensated equally compared to your male coworkers? Do you feel you are being discriminated against because of your gender? To find out more, go to the Washington Post and talk with an attorney today.

A number of former cooks and wait staff of New York City restaurant and bar B Bar have come forward to file a lawsuit against their employer, claiming that the restaurant did not follow standards for paying employees overtime.

The restaurant, owned by prominent restaurant and club owner Eric Goode, is a fixture for the hip New York set, frequently drawing celebrities. Goode, who owns a number of other restaurants including locations at the Maritime and Bowery hotels, is named as an individual defendant in this case.

This seems to be a particularly bad year for FLSA violations at restaurants in New York. Is this the work of a beefed up Department of Labor, with more investigators as promised by President Obama? Or are restaurant workers, who historically have worked for low wages and tips, starting to flex their legal rights as more and more suits hit? In either case, it is a promising sign for employees working the restaurant industry, and for the rights of hourly workers everywhere who are routinely denied overtime pay.

We mourn the loss of visionary Tim Costello, a man who had prescient knowledge and understanding of the needs of hourly-wage workers and those at the lower end of the earning scale, those with little power to oppose outsourcing of jobs to other countries and the use of temporary workers - practices that eliminated jobs and job benefits for many American workers. He helped found Global Labor Strategies, "which fostered cross-boarder alliances to fight to improve wages and working conditions in the face of downward pressures from companies moving jobs over seas." Mr. Costello also founded the North American Alliance for Fair Employment. Mr. Costello thought that "if you were on the left you will be working at it for the rest of your life, and you may not be successful, but it would be worth the effort." We are hopeful that others will step forward to fill the shoes of this exceptional advocate for the American worker.