Employment Law Blog

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals When no ERISA fees for arbitration.  ERISA fee award provisions do not cover success on the merits in arbitration unless the court first orders parties to arbitrate.  De Leon v. Int’l Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 23918 (9th Cir. Nov. 27, 2017). U.S. District Court for...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Gross income includes settlement payments not based on physical injury or physical sickness.  Tax Court properly concluded the settlement was not excludable from taxpayers’ gross income because neither the settlement agreement nor the facts and circumstances of the case demonstrated that the settlement was based on taxpayer’s physical injury...

Minimum wage requirement applies to workweek as a whole. District Court properly concluded employer complied with federal minimum wage requirement by paying minimum wage for workweek as a whole.  Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage for some hours during a workweek, so long as they pay more than...

U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit Identification of Glassdoor.com reviewers.  District Court properly denied Glassdoor, Inc.’s, motion to quash grand jury subpoena requiring identification of eight users who posted anonymous reviews on Glassdoor.com about a company being investigated for fraud, waste and abuse of federal funds.  The reviews supported an inference the reviewers observed...

U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit District Court properly concluded company must pay returning service member higher collective bargaining signing bonus based on larger plane he would have been flying if he had not departed for military service.  Huhmann v. Fed. Express Corp., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21955 (9th Cir. Nov. 2, 2017). NLRB...

U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit If the District Court determines employee did not obtain a more favorable judgment in his FLSA class action, the court must award the employer post-offer costs.  A less favorable final judgment is not an ultimate bar to attorney fees under the FLSA.  It is one factor a court...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly granted summary judgment against age discrimination claim.  When substitute teacher applies for permanent teaching position, ‘failure to hire’ standard applies.  Substitute failed to make out her prima facie case by showing a younger person with similar qualifications received the position.  The employer hired teachers with advanced...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals TSA did not err in disqualifying individual from serving as flight crew based on his conviction for conspiring to launder money.  TSA reasonably concluded as a crewmember had unescorted access to secure areas of planes and airports, he had to be especially trustworthy; his guilty plea showed that for...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court improperly granted summary judgment against ADA claim.  Employer failed to present evidence it engaged with employee to "discover the precise limitations and the types of accommodations which would be most effective" given her injury, and did not show assigning employee to light duty work, as it had...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly granted summary judgment against discrimination claim.  Former employee failed to raise a triable issue of fact whether he was performing according to employer’s legitimate expectations.  Employee committed three "serious offenses" under the collective bargaining agreement in a relatively short time span—any one of which could have...