Category – Alternative Dispute Resolution: Employment & Labor Insider

Posts in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Gretchen Carlson v. Roger Ailes -- can he sue her?

By Robin Shea on 7.15.16
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Defamation, Harassment

Me and my nerdy mind.

Gretchen Carlson.flickrCC.Disney-ABCNews — "Uh-oh."

It's too soon for me to have an opinion about who's right and who's wrong in the Gretchen Carlson-Roger Ailes sexual harassment case. Some very disturbing allegations have been made about Mr. Ailes' (long before Fox) having a "casting couch" for prospective female talent. If that's true, then it's disgusting.

On the other hand, a number of current ...

Can't make this stuff up

By Robin Shea on 3.5.15
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution

If you want your arbitration agreement to be enforceable, don't give it to your employee to sign while she is drunk and practically naked. At least, not in California.

15 for '15: Employment and labor resolutions for the new year

By David Phippen of our Metro D.C. Office.

While the year is still young, here are 15 New Year's resolutions that employers may want to make:

1. Make sure your "independent contractors" are really independent contractors. "Independent contractors" are under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, state and local agencies, plaintiffs' lawyers, and union organizers. A misclassification can cost you back taxes, back pay (including overtime), and back benefits, as well as penalties and interest.

2. Review your email policies. The NLRB recently found that employees generally have a right to use employer email systems during non-working time in support of union organizing and concerted activity. The Board's decision means that many employer email use policies, as currently drafted, would probably be found to violate the National Labor Relations Act if an unfair labor practice charge were filed or a union tried to organize employees and argued that the employer's email policy interfered with the organizing efforts. In light of the new "quickie election" rule that the NLRB issued last month, both union and non-union employers would be well advised to review their email policies and revise as needed. (The "quickie election" rule is scheduled to take effect on April 14, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other employer groups, including the Society for Human Resources Management, filed suit on Monday seeking to block the rule.)

It's not too late to register for our webinar on the NLRB's new rules on "quickie elections" and employee email use. The webinar, featuring labor attorneys Tim Davis, Jonathan Martin, and Dan Murphy, is from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern tomorrow (January 8). Be there, or be square!

Adopt an arbitration program that covers class, collective claims

7.7.14
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Class actions, Wage-Hour

Guest post by Tommy Eden, a partner in Constangy's Opelika, Alabama, and West Point, Georgia, offices.

In all the hoopla over the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision last week, it may have been lost that the Court refused to review a circuit court decision compelling arbitration in a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

All federal courts of appeal to decide the ...

Employment Litigation Lottery: IBM steps away

By Robin Shea on 5.16.14
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Discrimination

Is IBM crazy, or just crazy like a fox?

Bloomberg BNA reported this week that IBM has stopped providing the "disclosures" required by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act when it hands out severance packages.

As you know, when an employer has a "group termination" -- usually, a reduction in force, but a "group" can be as few as two people -- it is required to disclose the job titles and ...

Non-union employers should pay attention to the NLRB - here's why

By Robin Shea on 2.13.14
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Class actions, Labor Relations, Protected Concerted Activity, Social media, Violence

The National Labor Relations Board has taken the position that many garden-variety employment policies violate the law. These rulings place employers in a “Catch 22”—if employers rescind the policies, they could have trouble defending themselves in unemployment cases, wrongful termination lawsuits, or before government agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity ...

Employees: Better think twice before suing your employer (four reasons why)

By Robin Shea on 5.24.13
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Blacklisting, Discrimination, Retaliation

NOTE TO READERS (7/18/15): Due to a technical issue with the comments, replies that I tried to make to a number of commenters did not "post." I apologize. I think we have everything fixed now, and I've gone back in this morning and replied to just about everybody unless the comment did not seek a response or I couldn't understand the comment. My responses are under the name "InsiderBlog ...

EEOC's Strategic Plan and 5 tips for employers seeking a good mediation

By Robin Shea on 2.24.12
Posted in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Discrimination

I was all set to write this week about the EEOC's new Strategic Plan for 2012-16, but it was so darned vague, I'm not sure what I can meaningfully say about it. (In Roget's Thesaurus, or maybe it was The Devil's Dictionary, somebody said "strategic" was a synonym for "so indefinite that you can easily take the credit for achieving your goals, and no one will be the wiser if you failed. See also

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