Yesterday, Michael Okun spoke in front of the North Carolina Legislature’s Joint Study Committee on Work and Family Balance.  Mike presented an overview of employment law, the specific laws that assist employees in caring for family members and themselves, and possible improvements that could be made to further assist employees as they balance the demands of work and family.

An excellent paper on the topic is “Free Riding on Families: Why the American Workplace Needs to Change and How to Do It,” an Issue Brief by Phoebe Taubman, an Equal Justice Works Fellow with A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center, based in New York City.  The paper discusses the need for reform, compares our laws to the more robust protections available in most other countries, and proposes reforms in the areas of: an improved Family and Medical Leave Act, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, employment discrimination against caregivers, and workplace equity.

Categories: Legislative Action Tags: Discrimination, FMLA, Labor and Employment, Michael Okun, NC Legislature, Paid Leave, Work and Family Balance

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) was passed last year and went into effect on January 1, 2009.  The Act makes important changes to the definition of the term “disability” by rejecting the holdings in several Supreme Court decisions and portions of existing regulations. The effect of these changes is to make it easier for an individual seeking protection under the ADA to establish that he or she has a disability within the meaning of the ADA.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency tasked with issuing regulations that provide more specific rules concering the act.  According to a Notice by the EEOC about the ADAAA, the Act retains the ADA’s basic definition of “disability” as an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. However, it changes the way that these statutory terms should be interpreted in several ways. Most significantly, the Act: Read more…

Categories: Legislative Action Tags: ADA, ADAAA, Disability, Discrimination, EEOC, Labor and Employment, Regulations

In Brown v. Nucor Corporation, the 4th Circuit reversed the district court on the question of class certification.  Under Title VII, the plaintiffs had brought racial discrimination claims of disparate treatment and disparate impact with regard to promotion practices, as well as hostile work environment claims.  The majority concluded that the plaintiffs could proceed with all of these claims as a class action becuase the requirements of Rule 23 had been met.

Categories: Judicial Decisions Tags: Case Commentary, Class Action, Discrimination, Fourth Circuit, Labor and Employment, Title VII

In EEOC v. Central Wholesalers, Inc., the 4th Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the employer.  The court concluded that there was enough evidence for a jury to find that the plaintiff suffered from severe racial and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Categories: Judicial Decisions Tags: Case Commentary, Discrimination, Fourth Circuit, Labor and Employment, Title VII