Maine Employment Lawyer Blog

As reported here on June 3, 2011, the Maine legislature is considering a bill that would weaken public-sector unions. Ohio passed a similar law earlier this year. That law created a huge backlash from union supporters. This week, opponents of Ohio's anti-union law delivered nearly 1.3 million signatures from Ohioans who want the anti-union law put on the ballot for a potential people's veto. This was the largest number of signatures ever collected in Ohio for a people's veto campaign. U.S. Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat from a blue-collar area of Ohio, described Ohio's anti-union law as "a blatant political attack on Ohio's teachers, firefighters, policeman, and the rest of the people that support our communities." Maine has a people's veto mechanism similar to Ohio's and this campaign in Ohio could happen in Maine if anti-union bills become law.

On June 20, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a class action gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of over 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees. The representatives of the women of Wal-Mart alleged that Wal-Mart discriminated against women when it made pay and promotion decisions.

The lawyers representing the women of Wal-Mart put forward statistical evidence that proved Wal-Mart treated women less favorably than men. They also put forward evidence of a sexist corporate culture to support their statistics. For instance, Wal-Mart's most senior human resources official saw nothing wrong with district managers holding their management meetings at Hooters restaurants. Furthermore, during management training at Wal-Mart corporate headquarters, Wal-Mart told managers that the reason so few women have reached senior management at Wal-Mart was because men were "more aggressive" than women--an obviously stereotypical view of women in the workplace. Despite this and other evidence, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the lawyers representing the women of Wal-Mart failed to present sufficient evidence to prove class-wide discrimination.

Due to the Supreme Court's ruling, the women of Wal-Mart will have to bring their own individual gender discrimination lawsuits against Wal-Mart. If you are a woman who worked for Wal-Mart and you believe (a) that you received less pay because of your gender or (b) that you did not receive a promotion to a management position because of your gender, you should immediately contact an experienced Maine employment lawyer in order to protect your rights. Even if these things happened to you years ago, you can still pursue a claim against Wal-Mart.

A federal judge in Washington has approved a settlement that will require Wells Fargo to pay $32 million and reform its employment policies because of a sex discrimination class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of about 3,000 female financial advisors. The lawsuit alleged that Wells Fargo, and its predecessor Wachovia, discriminated against female financial advisors by denying them business opportunities such as distribution of accounts and work assignments.

This lawsuit is a symptom of the larger problem of unequal pay in this country. In the United States, women still earn significantly less than men. In Maine, on average, women earn over $9500 less per year than men.

If you believe that your employer pays you less than men who do the same job you do, you should contact an experienced employment lawyer for advice.

Connecticut has become the most recent state to prohibit employment discrimination against transgendered individuals. On June 4, 2011, the Connecticut Senate passed a bill prohibiting such discrimination and the Governor of Connecticut has promised to sign it into law. In a statement released after the vote, the Governor of Connecticut said, "[t]his bill is another step forward in the fight for equal rights for all of Connecticut's citizens, and it's the right thing to do. It's difficult enough for people who are grappling with the issue of their gender identity, and discrimination against them has no place in our society."

Maine has prohibited employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity since 2005. Earlier this year, Nevada enacted a law that prohibits employment discrimination against transgendered individuals. Massachusetts' legislature is currently debating a similar bill. Recently, Tennessee went in the opposite direction of Maine. It passed a law which nullified a Nashville ordinance that prohibited discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Tennessee's law is now the subject of a court challenge.

There is evidence that discrimination against transgendered individuals is rampant. According to the Human Rights Campaign , "in six studies conducted between 1996 and 2006, 20 to 57 percent of transgender respondents said they experienced employment discrimination, including being fired, denied a promotion or harassed." Connecticut will be the 15th state to pass a state law that prohibits employment discrimination against transgendered individuals.

The Maine legislature is considering a so-called "right to work" bill that would adversely affect public-sector unions. The bill would prohibit public-sector unions from collecting fees from non-members who reap the benefits of union services. Currently, public employees that do not join the union must pay a fee of about $5 per week to compensate the union for the services it provides to them. Those services include representation at grievance hearings and salary negotiations. This bill would strip the union of those $5 weekly fees.

According to a labor lawyer who testified before the legislature, the bill (LD 309) would also prohibit the union from collecting dues from its own members after a collective bargaining agreement expires. This would, of course, permit management to starve the union of money it needs to operate in order to extract concessions during negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement.

Earlier in this legislative session, the Maine Senate killed a similar "right to work" bill that would have impacted private-sector unions. That has not stopped private-sector unions from speaking out against this bill. Joel Pitcher, a member of Local 6 at Bath Iron Works said "it's divide and conquer, right? They're basically saying, 'We'll take (public employees) first and come after (private) later.' ... We're ready to join the fight now."