The United States Supreme Court, in a case named Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., recently ruled that the federal law prohibiting sexual harassment applies to situations where a harasser and a harassed employee...

Many collective bargaining agreements contain a union security clause, providing that each employee covered by the agreement must become a member of the union within thirty-one days of the employee’s date of hire. By...

On September 18, 1997, New York Governor Pataki signed into law amendments to the State Labor Law which significantly enhance the statutory penalties for underpayment or non-payment of wages. The new law, entitled the Unpaid...

California employers are all too familiar with claims of wrongful discharge by terminated employees who allege that they were party to an implied contract with the employer, under which they could not be discharged without...

In the September 1994 issue of this Newsletter, we reported that the federal courts are in disagreement over whether supervisors may be held personally liable for violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other...

A critical feature of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq., is its requirement that employers not only refrain from discrimination against disabled employees but, in addition,...

Since the 1980s, over 80 percent of large U.S. companies have implemented some form of employee participation program designed to improve workplace policies and develop and effect operational changes advantageous to both...

The New York State Labor Law includes what is known as a “Whistleblowers’ Statute.” That law (Labor Law § 740) prohibits a private employer from retaliating against an employee who discloses or threatens to...

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN”) generally requires that an employer provide 60 days’ advance notice of a plant closing or mass layoff. 29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq. (1988). The...

The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that when an employer makes a decision on the basis of a criterion that is often correlated with age – such as high salary or length of service – as opposed to age itself, the...