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The City of Alexandria is setting itself up to be among the first municipalities in the state to pass an ordinance allowing for collective bargaining by unions on behalf of city employees.
A recent change in Virginia law, codified in Virginia Code § 40.1-57.2, permits counties, cities and towns to adopt an ordinance to legally recognize and negotiate with labor unions or other employee associations who represent the interests of public employees. The law goes into effect on May 1.
Read moreComplex cases can present difficult legal issues but may also illuminate how courts evaluate questions such as when a party has waived its right to arbitrate. This is true regardless of the type of claims presented because the analytical framework spans diverse areas of law. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs’ recent Memorandum and Order addresses arbitrability issues and waiver of the right to seek arbitration in a detailed fashion. In re: Intuniv Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:16-cv-12653-ADB, (D. Mass.), originally decided Jan. 29, 2021, but filed Feb. 11, 2021.
Read moreAs Democrats in Congress craft an agenda in line with President Joe Biden’s stated focus on worker issues, they’re resurfacing long-standing efforts to address arbitration clauses in the employment context.
Controversial arbitration clauses in employment contracts are those that generally require those who sign them to agree not to pursue workplace disputes through lawsuits in court, and to instead pursue any claims through an arbitration process. By 2024, such agreements would apply to roughly 80 percent of private-sector employees not in a union, according to an estimate in May 2019 by the nonpartisan research nonprofit the Economic Policy Institute and the pro-worker social justice advocacy group The Center for Popular Democracy.
Read moreOver 2,500 COVID-19–related employment lawsuits were filed in the United States in 2020. Ogletree Deakins’ Interactive COVID-19 Litigation Trackerhighlights the industries impacted, locations, and types of claims in these matters.
Read moreAfter the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced that it had extended its ACT Mediation pilot program, the EEOC reversed course yesterday and abruptly concluded pilot programs relating to the EEOC’s conciliation and mediation efforts. The ACT Mediation pilot, which launched on July 6, 2020, expanded the categories of charges eligible for mediation, generally allowed for mediation to take place throughout an investigative process (rather than only before the investigation begins as is traditionally the case outside the pilot), and expanded the use of technology to hold virtual mediations.
Read moreAn employee sued her former employer and coworkers in the Eastern District of Michigan for sexual harassment, defamation, and for subjecting her to a hostile work environment. The employer argued that the employee’s claims fell within the scope of an arbitration agreement, but the district court held that the agreement was void because the employee had been coerced into signing it.
Read moreMost employers have seen the forecasts. The waves of employees let go in the COVID crisis will file a surge of employment claims. Worse, plaintiffs’ lawyers will scrutinize the many changes required by the pandemic and assert class actions and collective actions in response to practices or policies that are not on rock-solid legal ground.
Read moreIn Garcia v. Haralambos Beverage Co., the California Court of Appeal embraced the adage “time kills all deals” to conclude that an employer waived its right to arbitrate the wage-hour claims at issue in the case by, among other things, delaying two years to seek arbitration as a last resort and waiting to locate the plaintiffs’ signed arbitration agreements. By waiving its right to arbitrate, the employer also lost its ability to strike class claims as a result.
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