On Monday, May 18, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a pension plan that paid out benefits to pension receipients based upon calculations that did not equally credit women who had taken pregnancy leave prior to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) were not presently violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The Court explained in its […]
The Stimulus Package that was enacted in February, otherwise called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides sweeping whistleblower protections to any employee of an employer who receives any stimulus money. The protections found in section 1553 of the Act prohibit any demotion, discharge, or other discrimination of an employee when he or […]
Section 3001 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was enacted by Congress in February 2009 provides that for certain eligible employees who were involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, an employer must cover 65% of COBRA continuation coverage premiums, which employers may then take as a tax […]
The new Employment Selection Procedures Act became effective yesterday, May 12, 2009. As discussed in an earlier post, the Act requires an employer to “maintain a specific policy regarding the retention, disposition, access, and confidentiality of information” gathered in the “initial selection process,” i.e, the application process. In fact, the new law requires that an […]
In Merrill v. Utah Labor Commission, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the Utah Workers Compensation statutory provision that requires the reduction of workers compensation benefits by 50% of the Social Security retirement benefits received by an injured worker was unconstitutional under the “uniform operations of law” clause or article I, section 24 of the […]
In Utah Education Association v. Shurtleff, the Tenth Circuit vacated its prior decision and upheld Utah’s Voluntary Contributions Act, which provides that a public employer cannot withhold from its employees’ paychecks any voluntary political contributions, including contributions to unions. The Tenth Circuit initially agreed with the district court that the Act was unconstitutional because it […]
In Creative Consumer Concepts, Inc. v. Kreisler, the Tenth Circuit—the federal court having jurisdiction over Utah—discussed several evidentiary matters arising out of a severance agreement gone bad. Creative Consumer Concepts, Inc., terminated the employment of one of its vice presidents in 2004. In terminating the relationship, the company offered the vice president a severance agreement. […]
Many people will dismiss recordkeeping as a less-than-important topic that can easily be discussed in a few minutes at the beginning of a relatively short staff meeting. No matter how prevalent this view, it is wrong. In fact, aside from responsibilities that businesses have to keep records about contractual and formation issues, businesses that employ […]
In a case decided on Thursday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals—the appellate court having jurisdiction over Utah— upheld the dismissal of a complaint brought by a woman against the Colorado Department of Transportation for sexual harassment and retaliation she claimed occurred while she was working for the agency as an administrative assistant. In the […]
It happens to every employer. At some point, an employee comes to a manager, supervisor, or owner and explains that a coworker, or worse, a supervisor, has done something that the reporting employee does not like. The offensive conduct can be as minor as an employee showing up late or as serious as sexual misconduct. […]
