Employment Legal News Articles & Interviews

Los Angeles, CA Delgado v. ILWU-PMA Welfare Plan, an ERISA lawsuit now pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, has more lives than a cat.

Los Angeles, CA The California Labor Commissioner awarded 24 truck port drivers a total of $6 million for unpaid wages and benefits. The underpayment arose from NFI/California Cartage Express’s practice of intentionally misclassifying the drivers as independent contractors, rather than as employees. Since the 2018 California Supreme Court decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, many California unpaid wage lawsuits that deal with misclassification problem have gone for workers. Dynamex is under legal assault, however, particularly in the trucking industry.

Oakland, CA: Last year the restaurant industry alone was cited in California labor law violations amounting to millions of dollars. And according to a 2017 report, California wage theft can cost workers about $2 billion per year. That amount may rise now that agricultural workers are entitled to farmworker overtime pay based on a schedule issued by the Labor Commissioner's Office that went into effect as of January 1, 2019.

San Diego, CA: The Labor Commissioner’s Office is cracking down on California’s underground economy. Daniel Yu, Assistant Chief with the Bureau of Field Enforcement is charged with making sure employers comply with California labor laws, and that every worker, including illegals, is entitled to full protection.

Albany, NY On December 14, 2018, Adele Vargas filed a class action ERISA lawsuit against General Electric Company (“GE”) and Jeffrey Immelt, its former CEO. She alleges that GE improperly manipulated its earnings and inflated its stock price.

San Francisco, CA In one of the earliest decisions of 2019, the Ninth Circuit gave plaintiffs in long term denied disability lawsuits a new way to challenge benefit denial decisions. It may turn out to be significant.

Santa Ana, CA On November 20, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California handed Pamela Fleming a resounding victory in her Unum disability insurance lawsuit. Unum had been paying her LTD benefits since 2005, after a serious and well-documented neck injury sustained in a car accident. A change in her treating physician and a brief surveillance video led the insurer to re-evaluate her claim and declare that she had recovered. The insurer terminated her benefits. Judge Cormac J. Carney was not impressed and reinstated her benefits due under the policy.

Santa Clara, CA In late 2018, R. Ross and C. Rogus filed a class action California unpaid wages lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) that describes a pattern of gender-based pay discrimination. It’s hardly news, you think, that tech giants underpay women.

Sacramento, CA:The #MeTooMovement has resulted in a number of new laws with the goal to make it easier for employees to report sexual harassment and for employers to have a voice in investigations concerning this and other California labor law violations. Most of these laws took effect January 1, and employers would be wise to become familiar with them.

Nashville, TN News anchor Demetria Kalodimos, who had repeatedly been named the Best Local Reporter and Best Local TV News Personality by the readers of the Nashville Scene, was abruptly fired by WSMV, Channel 4 on December 4, 2017. On November 27, 2018, she filed an employment lawsuit in the Middle District of Tennessee, alleging violations of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Tennessee Human Rights Act and Disability Act and Tennessee common law. Allegations concerning violations of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 are expected to follow.