Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that a reasonable jury could find that Palmer Fire District Number One, Palmer Water District Number One, and two public officials (collectively “Palmer Fire and Water”) subjected former employee Lisa Koss to a sexually hostile work environment and then…
Last month, the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire ruled that a reasonable jury could determine that Northeast Utilities Service Company (NUSCO) discriminated against former employee Judith Janusz because of her age. In particular, the court found that a reasonable jury could conclude that NUSCO subjected Janusz to an unlawful…
Yesterday in Bangor, a jury held that Regis Corporation violated Maine’s Whistleblower Protection Act when it retaliated against former employee Valerie Peasley. Regis operates hair salons nationwide and Ms. Peasley worked at one of Regis’s salons in Bangor. Attorneys Peter Thompson and Chad Hansen, of the Maine Employee Rights Group,…
Last week, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, affirmed a trial court’s holding that two United Airlines contractors, Trans States Airlines and GoJet Airlines, jointly employed former employee Darren Cuff under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA requires covered employers to provide medical leave…
Under both Maine and federal law, employers in Maine must provide a disabled employee with “reasonable accommodations” if the disabled employee needs an accommodation to do her job. One of the tricky things about getting a reasonable accommodation is that sometimes accommodations that seem reasonable to one person seem like…
Tatsha Robertson, a former Senior Editor for People magazine, has sued People and its parent company, Time, Inc., for race discrimination. Robertson, who is African American, alleges that People Magazine laid her off because of her race. According to Robertson’s lawsuit, “behind the cover and pages of People magazine, is…
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court of Maine held that Granite Bay Care, Inc., could legally retaliate against an employee who made a mandated report to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that the company abused and/or neglected some of its clients. Granite Bay, based in Portland, provides…
A new study from the Economic Policy Institute shows that women who work in the food service industry earn significantly less than men. The pay disparities are most pronounced in some of the restaurant jobs that pay the most—first line supervisors, bartenders, and managers. Male managers, for instance, earn a…
Recently, judges from the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, and a judge from the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire have expressed frustration with attorneys for corporate defendants who filed meritless summary judgment motions in employment discrimination cases. A summary judgment motion asks a judge to dismiss…
A Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission Board of Inquiry recently found that the Black Educators’ Association (BEA), an agency funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Education, discriminated against former employee Rachel Brothers because of her color. According to Donald C. Murray, who was appointed to hear the case by…