United States: Class Action Lawsuits: In Vogue? High Fashion Gets Hit With Wage And Hour Class Action Lawsuits Over Unpaid Internship Programs

Sportswear-inspired designs, bold prints, and gingham aren’t the only things trending for Spring 2015 in the fashion world. Judging from a recent wave of lawsuits, wage and hour class actions are trending as well. Over the past few years, class action lawsuits over unpaid internships have been on the rise, with this most recent wave of filed lawsuits serving as a powerful reminder to employers that intern programs can’t simply be viewed as a […]

By | February 24th, 2015 ||

United States: California Paid Sick Leave — Yet Another Reason For Restaurants To Abolish Service Charges And Automatic Gratuities

I was presenting to a terrific group of HR Directors at the LA Restaurant HR Association last week, and a question about California’s new paid sick leave requirements came up.

One sleeper provision of that new law requires that sick leave be paid at the employee’s “regular rate” and not the base hourly rate. Of note, the “regular rate” for sick leave purposes is not necessarily the same calculation as the “regular rate” for overtime […]

By | February 24th, 2015 ||

United States: Supreme Court May Dilute EEOC’s Aggressive Legal Strategy

My colleague David Barmak was quoted in a Business Insurance article entitled Supreme Court May Dilute EEOC’s Aggressive Legal Strategy, in which he explains the Supreme Court’s heightened scrutiny of the EEOC’s claims against employers. The article focuses on recent judicial defeats of the EEOC and their potential implications for employers who seek to challenge the EEOC’s approach.

By | February 24th, 2015 ||