Employment Law Blog

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District court properly granted summary judgment against claim for failing to adequately compensate employee for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Breaks not authorized by the employer were not working time.  Sheehy v. Santa v. Santa Clara Valley Trans. Auth., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3723 (9th Cir. Mar....

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District court improperly granted summary judgment against Title VII hostile work environment claim.  A reasonable juror could find supervisor greeting with unwelcome hugs on over 100 occasions and at least one kiss during a 12-year period was more than ordinary workplace socializing and became abusive.  Supervisor hugging and kissing...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals National Labor Relations Board retained authority to order reinstatement of discharged employee, after employee entered settlement accepting payment and waiving reinstatement.  District court did not abuse discretion by granting Board temporary injunction requiring employee's reinstatement.  Because employer's speech was allegedly illegally coercive, ordinary standard for temporary injunction applied.  Regional...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District court properly denied motion to vacate arbitration award.  Failure to provide agreed upon reasoned opinion denying former employee's claim did not support vacating.  Decision contained enough reasons.  Failure to rule on all evidentiary issues did not support vacating award.  Award stated all claims not expressly granted were denied.  ...

Section 301 Labor Management Relations Act preempted state law claims because resolving them would require interpreting the collective bargaining agreements and not only looking to them.  Estrada v. Kaiser Found. Health Plan, Inc., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1800 (9th Cir. Feb. 1, 2017). District court improperly granted summary judgment against trade secrets misappropriation claim.  Plaintiff...

District court improperly granted summary judgment against former employee's hostile work environment claim.  Reasonable trier of fact could conclude coworker's conduct was sufficiently severe or pervasive to create hostile work environment.  The employer knew about the conduct and failed to take corrective remedial action.  District court improperly granted summary judgment against disparate treatment claim.  Even...

District court dismissed employee's claim for prevailing wages required by HRS §103-55, because no private right of action exists to enforce statute.  District court declined to dismiss claim employee was third party beneficiary of employer's contract with government.  Since allegations of complaint were unclear and no contract was attached, court could not determine whether contract...

District court properly granted summary judgment against Title VII discrimination and retaliation claims.  Former employee did not show she was performing according to employer's legitimate expectations.  She did not show employer's desire to retaliate was the "but-for" cause of her dismissal.  District court properly granted summary judgment against Title VII hostile work environment claim. Former...

District court granted summary judgment against discrimination, retaliation and harassment claims under title VII, section 1985 and HRS § 378-2.  Misconduct by former employee was legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for termination which he did not prove was pretextual.  Employer investigated and took corrective action when former employee complained about inappropriate remarks by coworkers.  District court granted...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District court abused discretion by concluding former employee's failure to disclose wage and hour lawsuit during bankruptcy judicially estopped her from later filing it.  She was not aware of enough facts to know she had a legal claim until she retained counsel about a month before her bankruptcy case...