Employment Blog

An important decision for every business is whether it should classify workers as employees or independent contractors. This distinction is important for many reasons such as taxes and liability. Furthermore, if a worker is an independent contractor, wage and hour provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) do not apply. For this reason, many companies try to get away with misclassifying workers as independent contractors to avoid minimum wage

In a moment somewhat reminiscent of the recent government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis, Washington supermarkets narrowly averted a strike with a last minute agreement. A Seattle Times article details the preparations customers, employers and employees made in light of the impending strike. Some customers stocked up early on essentials to avoid crossing picket lines. The four grocery chain employers (Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Safeway and QFC) started looking for temporary

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency charged with enforcing federal laws against discrimination in the workplace. If an employee believes they have been discriminated against on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, or genetic information, or if they believe they have been retaliated against for reporting, participating in, and/or opposing a discriminatory practice, they may file a complaint with the EEOC.

In 2013, a few state and local governments passed important pro-worker bills. Two states voted to raise the minimum wage, while Portland, Oregon and New York City passed laws that require employers to provide earned paid sick leave. While American workers may applaud these actions, they are likely not aware that more states considered passing such bills, but were effectively blocked by the efforts of the food industry’s corporate lobbyist,

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an organization composed of United State federal and state legislators, foundations, and corporations. ALEC members work to create so-called model policies for legislators to introduce as bills in their respective states. These bills generally focus on limited government and federalism at the state level. In the employment sector, ALEC has pushed a largely pro-corporation, anti-worker agenda, often referred to as a “race to

The holiday season is fast approaching. Many companies are preparing for increased demands from holiday shoppers and many people are beginning to look for holiday employment, both full-time and part-time, The Puget Sound Business Journal reported that Amazon plans to hire 70,000 full-time holiday employees. This is a significant increase in seasonal workers over last year’s numbers. More importantly, the article mentions that many of those seasonal employees could become

With an aging population, the home care industry is rapidly growing in the United States, yet many of its employees’ wages are not currently protected under federal law. More specifically, home care employers are not required to pay home care workers minimum wage or overtime. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) established federally mandated minimum wage and overtime laws in 1974, but under those laws home care workers were exempt.

Human trafficking is a term for a person or group holding another person for compelled service. Related common terms include involuntary servitude and forced labor. Human trafficking is a serious problem in almost every country in the world and the United States is no exception. The Trafficking in Persons Report of 2011 published by the Department of State indicates that the U.S. is a source, transit, and destination country for

When the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was into law 23 years ago this month, it marked an expansion of civil rights protections to people with disabilities. In many ways it is similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits certain parties from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Importantly, both of these laws specifically prohibit employers from discriminating against the groups

Last week, the not guilty verdict announced after the five week-long George Zimmerman trial sparked debates and demonstrations throughout the nation. The office of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey has faced harsh criticism by legal experts and thousands of Americans for its failed prosecution efforts. In addition, Zimmerman’s defense team has made clear plans to file sanctions against the entire prosecution team. However, these are not the only problems for

This November, voters in the city of SeaTac could pass the SeaTac Good Jobs Initiative (“GJI”), which would establish the highest minimum wage in the country, according to an article from Seattle-based KOMO News Network. The SeaTac ballot initiative would establish a minimum wage of $15 per hour for certain employees at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. However, Alaska Airlines and other groups have filed legal challenges to this initiative, hoping

Craig Thomas, a former employee of Tacoma-based Sound Inpatient Physicians, Inc., will receive $2.7 million of a $14.5 million settlement in a whistleblower lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”). The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Sound agreed to pay the sum to the United States government to settle claims that Sound had fraudulently overbilled the government for medical services. Thomas’s share of the settlement is his reward

The economic downturn of recent years has led to an increase in the number of unpaid internships being offered. Employers are certainly happy to have additional unpaid help, and students and other job-seekers find these positions desirable in order to add additional experience to their resumes. While at first glance unpaid internships may seem like a win-win for everyone involved, several recent cases have highlighted how employers can take advantage

Hair stylist Melanie Strandberg quit her job at a spa in Spokane after she was told to wear a wig to cover her bald head at work. The Spokane Spokesman-Review reports that she has since filed a discrimination lawsuit against her former employer. The question is, what kind of discrimination did she face? After Strandberg learned that her sister would have to undergo chemotherapy treatment for cancer, she shaved her

The state of Oregon, as one of the biggest employers within the state, often faces tumultuous negotiations regarding its labor contracts with its employees. Just one example of this is the state’s ongoing negotiation with the service employees’ union, which recently hit a fairly major snag According to a report by the Statesman Journal, on June 11th, the Service Employees International Union Local 503 (SEIU) – a union that represents

The Spokane Journal of Business recently published an article which might cause worry among some in the area. The story noted how newly released information indicates that the average hourly wage in Spokane is about 6% behind the nationwide average–$20.65/hour compared with the $22.01/hour. According to data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, this represented a slightly widening gap as the discrepancy was only 5% the prior year. The

As the Oregonian recently reported, the Coast Guard has recently become involved in managing safety in a lockout where protests are occurring both on land and on boats in the Columbia and Willamette rivers. This labor dispute is between longshore workers, who load and unload ships at the dock, and the grain companies Columbia Grain Inc. in Portland and United Grain Corp. in Vancouver. The grain companies have locked out

In our last post, we discussed how Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) has been the subject of ongoing criticism and attempts at reform. Specifically, we explored one of the major liabilities of the system – the Money Match pension formula that has significantly raised pension costs for government employers in the state of Oregon. While the faults of the system affects all manner of public employees – including police

One of the most important issues facing the state of Oregon these days is the brokenness of its Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). In order to provide you with a holistic understanding of the situation, this post will be the first in a series discussing PERS reform. In this post, we will discuss the major problems with the system. In subsequent posts we will discuss some proposals to fix PERS,

Oregon Governor John Fitzahaber has been working with leaders from both the business and labor communities to find a compromise measure on tax increases that might be palatable to the public. However, in a move that has elicited strong reactions from both business and labor groups, a union-backed organization called Our Oregon recently proposed ballot measures that would seek to raise corporate tax rates in Oregon if the governor’s plan

When most people hear the term “labor dispute” they normally picture a large corporation with several layers of disconnected managers and unfeeling personnel policies. While there are many – too many – cases of this sort, even small, seemingly labor-friendly nonprofit organizations can become embroiled in employment rights disputes. Nonprofit Radio Station Tries to Streamline Personnel Policies As the Portland Tribune reports, this is the case with KBOO, a Portland

What type of employee are you? One that logs every hour of the week or one that has an annual salary? To many Washington employees, his or her classification as exempt or nonexempt may seem like a HR technicality and consequently they pay very little mind to it. The truth is that your employee classification is very important because this status controls things like overtime regulations and other wage issues.

A lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Evans Fruit, one of the largest apple growers in the United States, was recently dismissed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. This dismissal, in conjunction with the EEOC’s loss of a related trial, has been a boon to Evans Fruit, but raises some concerns about which Washington employees should be aware. Evans Fruit Prevails

Class action lawsuits – in which a large group of people sue a defendant claiming that each has been injured in some similar way – are often used a convenient way of settling many similar claims in one action, rather than clogging up the legal system with multiple, duplicative suits. However, one of the major hurdles to bringing a class action, as the plaintiffs in a suit against a Comcast

As discussed previously on this blog, minimum wage was a hot topic in 2013 and is expected to continue to be so in this New Year. In fact, the issue of raising the minimum wage at the federal level is expected to be a key issue in the 2014 midterm Congressional elections. Furthermore, Democrats in many states are pushing minimum wage legislation in an effort to win the votes of

That’s certainly what the Retail Litigation Center (RLC) and a group of business associations are hoping. This group recently filed a “friend of the court” (amicus curiae) brief with the US Supreme Court urging the Court to hear an appeal of the Seventh Circuit’s decision in RBS Citizens, N.A. v. Ross. The group explained its rationale for filing the brief: “Because these business [represented by amici curiae] are frequently targeted

In an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) action claiming a wrongful demotion, the lower court had instructed the jury to enter a verdict for the plaintiff if he proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he was demoted and his age was a motivating factor in the demotion decision. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the jury verdict holding that a plaintiff bringing an ADEA disparate-treatment claim