Recently in Employment Law Category

One surprising legal question being asked across the country is: Are strippers employees or independent contractors? The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that in one particular case, they are employees.

Exotic dancers at Club Orleans in Topeka, Kansas, fought for their right to be classified as employees, reports The Kansas City Star. The dispute dates back to 2005.

This classification is important to the strippers, as it can be the difference between receiving and not receiving certain benefits like unemployment insurance.

President Barack Obama isn't the first chief executive to make recess appointments to government agencies like the National Labor Relations Board. But if last week's federal appeals court ruling stands, he may be the last.

In general, when the president wants to appoint people to vacant executive posts, he must present his nominees to the Senate for approval. But many presidents have bypassed that process, especially when a nominee faces stiff opposition, by appointing people while the Senate is in recess.

This had gone on for years, until a few of President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB were challenged in court. A ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown that process into question.

Employees whose LinkedIn accounts are hacked by previous employers have no recourse under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), according to a ruling last week.

Linda Eagle shared her password with a coworker at Edcomm so she could get help managing her LinkedIn account. When Eagle was fired the coworker changed the account's password and the company put a new name and photo on the account.

The judge's opinion isn't that taking over someone else's LinkedIn account isn't ever hacking. But in this case, Eagle doesn't have a real claim against her ex-employer.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker worked hard to pass a law to significantly restricted unions' collective bargaining rights. A ruling by a Wisconsin judge on Friday has effectively undone all of that.

The law was the subject of national debate when it was passed over a year ago. It's been in effect for months and while Walker's popularity suffered for it, he survived a recall election in June. The law also survive a previous suit brought before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, according to Fox News.

This decision throws into doubt about where the law is still in effect. Unions are claiming victory but Walker isn't out of this fight yet.

Walmart wins a nine-year-old lawsuit brought by a class of janitors that claimed that the retailer engaged in immigration violations, unfair labor practices, and even falsely imprisoned its workers.

The janitors worked for a variety of contractors that provided janitorial services to Walmart. They accuse Walmart of trying to clean its stores "on the cheap" by hiring illegal immigrants that would be more willing to put up with unfair working conditions and lower pay, reports Reuters. In addition, to keep federal authorities from finding the immigrants, the janitors claim that they were locked up overnight in Walmart stores.

A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld rulings by a lower court and found that the janitors could not sue as a class. They also rejected the illegal work condition and false imprisonment claims.

Fire departments have found themselves the target of several high profile race discrimination lawsuits based on their employment exams. And courts have been all over the map with their rulings.

Most recently, the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals upheld the City of Buffalo's employment exam finding that while there was a disparate impact against black firefighters, the test was not discriminatory.

A group representing black firefighters had sued claiming that the test was discriminatory as only 43 percent of black firefighters passed the exam, as compared to 76 percent of their white counterparts, reports Reuters.

The Supreme Court ruled drug representatives are not entitled to overtime pay in its decision on Monday.

Two ex-GlaxoSmithKline employees sued their former employer for OT. GSK and other pharmaceutical companies have historically treated drug representatives as outside salespeople exempt from overtime pay. That classification was challenged by the plaintiffs but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of pharmaceutical companies.

The 5-4 decision will have a significant impact on existing lawsuits against the pharmaceutical industry.

A federal jury has awarded $25 million to a black steelworker who sued for racial harassment at a now-defunct plant in upstate New York.

Elijah Turley worked 14 years at the ArcelorMittal plant in Lackawanna, N.Y., but a series of racist incidents between 2005 and 2008 left him a physical and emotional wreck, his attorney told jurors, according to The Buffalo News.

Turley's coworkers taunted him by calling him "monkey" and "boy." They scrawled graffiti on factory walls that said "KKK" and "King Kong." And they tied a stuffed monkey, hanging by a noose, to Turley's car.

New York City's transit agency has settled a lawsuit over a dress code that allegedly discriminated against Sikhs and Muslims for more than a decade after 9/11.

The dress code, which critics called a "brand or segregate" policy, allegedly forced Sikh and Muslim workers to make a choice about their religious head coverings: "Brand" them with a Metropolitan Transit Authority logo, or be "segregated" to a less-desirable job out of public view.

The policy was apparently on the books for years, but it wasn't enforced until 2002, in the wake of 9/11, Reuters reports. Ten years later, it's being partly derailed.

SeaWorld shows may soon get a lot less exciting. A federal judge has ordered SeaWorld to enact safety measures to protect SeaWorld trainers.

Administrative Law Judge Ken Welsch upheld violations cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration against SeaWorld, Reuters reports. The case came after the death of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer who was killed by a killer whale during an Orlando SeaWorld show.

So what kind of protections could be coming down the pike?