Tag: class action

Twitter WARNing: How Layoffs Can Trigger WARN Act Requirements

After Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, the company laid off over 900 California employees. As news spread that Twitter plans to eliminate 50% of its workforce, employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company alleging the reduction in force violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act as well as California law. […]

House’s Passage of FAIR Act Signals End of Mandatory Arbitration of Workplace Disputes

For decades, American employers have relied on judicial precedent and the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) to enforce predispute mandatory arbitration agreements, which are signed before any known conflict arises between the employer and the employee (typically at the beginning of the employment relationship) requiring them to arbitrate any future employment disputes. They often contain provisions […]

It’s Now Easier for Alleged Joint Employers to Compel Arbitration

Nearly four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held employers can enforce arbitration agreements that waive an employee’s right to join a class action lawsuit. Since then, many companies have avoided what would be costly class action lawsuits, particularly in the wage and hour context, by requiring individual arbitration with employees. Despite this, there was […]

Going down the class-action Tran-Canada Highway

by Kyla Stott-Jess and Mitchell Barnard The phrase “class action lawsuit” can strike fear in the executive ranks of any large company. The development of class action law in in the employment context has been slower north of the 49th parallel than in the United States. Recently, though, a line of cases has been paving […]

Uber class action ruling expected to have national implications

A San Francisco judge’s ruling granting class action status to possibly thousands of Uber drivers carries implications that “go well beyond California,” according to an attorney closely watching the case. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled September 1 that a group of Uber drivers in California can sue as a class as they argue that […]

SHRM Exposition Special: Does Eliminating Employee Lawsuits Exist in Fantasy or Reality?

The Glasshouse Report claims it has a product that can “eliminate employee lawsuits.” The question, besides whether it’s even possible: can The Glasshouse Report deliver on that claim? Many new and interesting HR tools and techniques were showcased at the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Annual Conference and Exposition, held recently in Las Vegas. […]

Look out―here comes GINA!

by Craig L. Olivo and Hilary L. Moreira The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibits employers from discriminating in any term or condition of employment based on employees’ or applicants’ “genetic information.” It also prohibits you from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information (with narrow exceptions). GINA was passed by Congress out of concern that […]

Criminal and background reports as evidence in EEOC class actions

by Steven Collis In its first class action lawsuit challenging an employer’s use of criminal records, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ended up dropping its case against PeopleMark and getting socked with $750,000 in sanctions. Recently, the EEOC suffered another stinging loss when a federal court dismissed its discrimination case against Kaplan Higher Education […]