Employment Law Blog

U.S. Supreme Court Deduction of agency fee from public employee’s pay requires affirmative consent.  Neither an agency fee nor any other payment to a union may be deducted from a non-member public employee’s wages, nor may any other attempt be made to collect such a payment, unless the public employee affirmatively consents to pay.   Janus...

U.S. Supreme Court Arbitration agreements barring class claims may be enforceable.  Employees and employers may agree any disputes between them will be resolved though one-on-one arbitration.  Employees need not always be allowed to bring their claims in class or collective actions, even though they agreed otherwise with their employers.  Agreements to arbitrate may be invalidated...

U.S. Supreme Court Automobile service advisors exempt from FLSA overtime.  Automobile service advisors were exempt from FLSA overtime requirement because they were salesmen primarily engaged in servicing cars since they sold customers services for their vehicles and they were also primarily engaged in servicing cars since they were integral to the servicing process as they met...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The District Court properly granted summary judgment against claims of discrimination, termination and wrongful discharge. An employer discharged a former employee after an internal investigation revealed that he vandalized another employee’s vehicle. The former employee failed to identify any similarly situated employees enjoying more favorable treatment or other circumstances...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly dismissed claim company plan fiduciaries breached their fiduciary duties by permitting plan to hold company stock, because plaintiffs failed to plead plausible facts supporting theory the fiduciaries knew stock was inflated, and plaintiffs’ proposed alternative course of action of not purchasing more stock was likely to...

U.S. District Court District of Hawaii District Court denied motion to dismiss aiding and abetting claim against individual defendant, because complaint easily met requirement of alleging aiding-and-abetting individual defendant was person who incited, compelled, or coerced discriminatory actions against former employee and another, different defendant or employee was person who was incited, compelled, or coerced...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly denied employer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law. Although District Court improperly conflated elements of the former employee’s disparate treatment and failure to accommodate claims, error was harmless.  Since employer knew of former employee’s physical limitations and request for accommodation, it had duty to...

Hawaii Employment Law Cases December 17, 2017 to December 23, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Workweek starts any day and hour.  District Court properly granted summary judgment against overtime pay claim, because a workweek may begin on any day and at any hour of the day.  District Court properly...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Details on jury instructions.  Any error by the District Court giving the jury a "Limitation on Remedies - Same Decision" instruction was more probable than not harmless, because the jury decided the former employee’s disability or medical leave was not a substantial motivating reason for his discharge. The District...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Exhaustion and fair representation required.  District Court did not err dismissing claim for breach of the collective bargaining agreement, because former employee did not exhaust grievance procedure or claim the union breached its duty of fair representation.  Kuang v. Bel Air Mart, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 24851 (9th Cir....