Recently in Employment Law Category

In 1999, Geraldine Fuhr filed a successful lawsuit to be instated as varsity boys basketball coach at Hazel Park High School, where she had been employed as varsity girls basketball coach. For five years she coached both the girls and boys varsity basketball teams. In 2006, she was removed from her position coaching varsity girls basketball.

Fuhr says she was removed in retaliation for her lawsuit. The school district claimed that she was removed to allow for even more equality.

So who wins? According to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the school district gets the W because Fuhr failed to state a prima facie case for her claims.

In 2008, Crystal Dixon — then-interim Associate Vice President for Human Resources at the University of Toledo — penned an op-ed column in the Toledo Free Press criticizing comparisons between the civil rights and gay rights movements.

Dixon wrote, "As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman ... Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few."

Shortly thereafter, Dixon was fired.

If you want to win a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compensation dispute, you have to prove that an employer knew or should have known that it owed your client for her work.

If your client -- like today's Sixth Circuit appellant -- failed to comply with internal reporting protocols, she may be out of luck.

There are bad weeks, and then there are lose-your-job-and-file-for-bankruptcy bad weeks. Karen Auday had the unfortunate distinction of enduring the latter.

To make matters worse, Auday alleges that she was a victim of age discrimination. While that may be true, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Auday can't sue her former employer because the claim now belongs to her bankruptcy estate.

Seriously, this woman can't catch a break.

Peggy Blizzard was hired as a part-time Associate Accounts Payable Clerk in the Business Office at Marion Technical College (MTC) in 1992. She was promoted to Accounts Payable Clerk 1 in 1996, and terminated from that position in April 2008, when she was 57. Blizzard sued MTC, claiming that her termination was based on age discrimination.

This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found that there wasn't a large enough age gap between Blizzard and her replacement to prove support the age discrimination claim.

A state can adopt a liberal attitude toward medical marijuana use, but that doesn't mean that employers within that state are required to adopt a similarly progressive drug policy.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA) does not protect patients from disciplinary action in a private employment setting for using medical marijuana, Huffington Post reports.

Yesterday, we told you about Robert Back, a former employee at Nestlé's Mount Sterling, Ky. "Hot Pocket" plant. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a district court's dismissal of Back's age discrimination suit against Nestlé.

Back offered two types of evidence to support his claims under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act: Direct evidence and circumstantial evidence. As we discussed previously, the courts ruled that his direct evidence -- the Human Resources Director's alleged statement that upper management had decided to get rid of the three oldest employees -- was inadmissible hearsay.

The appellate court also considered Back's circumstantial evidence on appeal. That's the evidence we're discussing today.

If you want to win an age discrimination case with direct evidence, there’s a good chance you’ll have to argue hearsay. If your case involves double hearsay, you have to argue why the statement is admissible at each step.

For example …

Robert Back worked in Nestlé’s “Hot Pocket” plant in Mount Sterling, Ky. from November 1998 until July 2007. He was 53 when Nestlé fired him for his “history of failing to properly supervise his subordinates and his team’s history of failing to meet expectations.”

Not sure how to proceed in a Social Security disability benefits appeal when an administrative law judge (ALJ) makes a factual -- though possibly harmless -- error?

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals announced Friday that harmless error analysis applies to credibility determinations in the Social Security disability context.

Thomas M Cooley Law School has one helluva a bit of a public relations problem. The school has dealt with the inflated “independent law school rankings” (which placed Cooley second only to Harvard), subpoenas to silence Cooley critics, and the class action fraud suit that recent Cooley alum filed last year.

But Cooley isn’t just battling students and bloggers; it’s also been fighting its former faculty in the federal court.