During the holiday period, December 30th to be exact, the Department of Labor issued a guidance on how the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) applies to faith-based organizations. Although RFRA has been found not to apply to the states, it...

Our own Paul Secunda was recently quoted in the Chicago Tribune on a disturbing case in which it is alleged that an employee was terminated to avoid the medical claims made on behalf of her terminally ill husband. The employer...

David C. Yamada, Workplace Bullying and Ethical Leadership (525). Anup K. Basu, Alistair Byrne, Michael E. Drew, Dynamic Lifecycle Strategies for Target Date Retirement Funds (163). Francine J. Lipman, The Undocumented Immigrant Tax (144). David C. Yamada, Human Dignity...

Steven Pearlstein has an interesting column in the Washington Post discussing ways to reduce some of the sting in the labor market during a recession. As Pearlstein notes, an alternative to significant layoffs during downturns in the labor market is...

Friend of the blog, Jack Sargent poses this question: guess who loses what happens when gross sexual discrimination meets statutory construction in the Minnesota Court of Appeals? Minnesota public radio provides the report of the decision in Krueger v. Zeman...

In taking the case of Metlife v. Glenn, the Supreme Court attempted to bring some clarity to ERISA denial of benefit cases when the insurer is both the one to determine the benefits and pay them. Instead, things are now...

Way back in 2006, we posted on the Church Homes case, in which the Second Circuit rejected the NLRB's conclusion that an employer's secret hiring of permanent replacements did not suggest an independent unlawful action under Section 8(a)(3). On remand,...

If you're looking for a reason to stay in Southern-ish California after the AALS, you might be interested in an upcoming conference that friend of the blog Patrick S. O'Donnell forwarded to me: Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California Santa Barbara,...

The Fourth Circuit recently issued an interesting decision on the LMRA's prohibition under against employers giving anything of value to a union (Section 302). In Adcock v. Freightliner, the court rejected the argument of employees (represented by the Right to...

As a sign that the political machinations surrounding EFCA has reached a fever pitch, we now have news of a recent initiative to place a secret ballot amendment in various state constitutions. And yes, I'm thinking what you're thinking--could you...

David C. Yamada, Workplace Bullying and Ethical Leadership (508). Anup K. Basu, Alistair Byrne, Michael E. Drew, Dynamic Lifecycle Strategies for Target Date Retirement Funds (156). Francine J. Lipman, The Undocumented Immigrant Tax (136). David C. Yamada, Human Dignity...

Rick Hills (NYU), one of the more thought-provoking and provocative thinkers over at PrawfsBlawg, has an interesting post on the interaction between the democratic process and the law of ERISA preemption. His post takes off from the recent ERISA preemption...

Ross Runkel's Employment Law Memo has this fascinating decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, finding that an employer’s Rule 68 offer of judgment to a class plaintiff in a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) wage and hour case...

Color me unsurprised: the Washington Post has a story out today on OSHA's lack of enforcement during the Bush Administration. A major problem appears to be the influence of political appointees at the agency interfering with career scientists' findings. According...

It's the time of year to reflect back, and so I'll reflect back on the Supreme Court's most recent conference and the labor and employment petitions that the Court denied. There were five of them (the links are to the...

David Yamada (Suffolk) has just started a new blog, Minding the Workplace. The target audience is folks interested in workplace dignity, bullying, and psychological health topics. Here's a description: Welcome to Minding the Workplace, the blog of the New Workplace...

Articles Raja Raghunath, Stacking the Deck: Privileging “Employer Free Choice” Over Industrial Democracy in the Card-Check Debate, 87, Nebraska L. Rev.329 (2008). Nantiya Ruan, Accommodating Respectful Religious Expression in the Workplace, 92 Marquette L. Rev. 1 (2008). Scott L. Cummings,...

Harold Lewis, Jr. (Mercer) and Thomas Eaton (Georgia) have just posted on SSRN their article The Contours of a New FRCP, Rule 68.1: A Proposed Two-Way Offer of Settlement Provision for Federal Fee-Shifting Cases. Here's the abstract: Our research began...

Our own Paul Secunda was quoted in today's Wall Street Journal on the Wal-Mart settlement we recently posted on. As Paul notes, one of Wal-Mart's reasons for settling now may be the new political realities in the federal government and...

The New York Times, in an article co-authored by Stephen Greenhouse, is reporting that Wal-Mart (who else?) has just agreed to a $352 million or more settlement over off-the-clock claims. We've reported on some previous big Wal-Mart settlements, but this...