Littler names McLaughlin as Indianapolis, San Diego office managing shareholder
Littler Mendelson PC has named Alan L. McLaughlin regional office managing shareholder of the firm’s Indianapolis and San Diego offices.
Employment Law
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Scrounging for change: DOL pauses proposed tip-pooling, tip credit rules changes
Proposed changes to the country’s tipped employee regulations have caused a stir among some states and worker advocates, prompting a temporary halt of further movement from the U.S. Department of Labor.
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To mandate or not to mandate: Employers preparing for COVID-19 vaccine
While the pandemic continues to rage and pharmaceutical makers get closer to developing an effective vaccine, Americans’ willingness to get inoculated has slipped. Battles over the vaccination will probably spill into the workplace, and employers are already starting to consider policies and plans for ensuring their workers’ health along with making possible accommodations to those who object to getting the shots.
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Giving and taking: Landmark high court LGBTQ employment ruling clouded by ministerial exception expansion
Just as celebrations were starting over the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Title VII protections cover transgender workers, another opinion from the nine justices shielded religious organizations from lawsuits by expanding the ministerial exception legal doctrine and injected more energy into potential religious liberty challenges to anti-discrimination laws.
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Web Exclusive: Lawyers with disabilities speak out against small numbers, stigma
The number of lawyers in the United States who report having some form of a disability is minuscule. But as small as the figures may be, a shift is taking place in the legal industry that has caused the numbers to double in the past decade.
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Articles
Fired Cathedral teacher appeals dismissal of his lawsuit against archdiocese
Joshua Payne-Elliott, a foreign language and social studies teacher, sued the archdiocese after his contract with Cathedral was terminated in June 2019.
Supreme Court won’t hear case involving the N-word
The Supreme Court is declining to hear a case that would have let the justices decide whether a single use of the N-word in the workplace can create a hostile work environment.
Justices consider hearing a case on ‘most offensive word’
In a case focusing on elevator graffiti, Robert Collier is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether a single use of the N-word in the workplace can create a hostile work environment, giving an employee the ability to pursue a case under Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Fired Cathedral teacher’s suit against archdiocese over same-sex marriage dismissed
In a one-page order, Marion Superior Special Judge Lance Hamner did what a previous special judge and the Indiana Supreme Court had not done – dismiss the wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a gay teacher against the archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Reversing Trump, US restores transgender health protections
The U.S. will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care, the Biden administration announced Monday, reversing a Trump-era policy that sought to narrow the scope of legal rights in sensitive situations involving medical care.
Union leaders decry Indiana’s high rate of worker deaths
Indiana labor union leaders are calling for improved workplace safety enforcement with the state’s rate of deaths while working about one-third higher than the national average.
Holcomb to reinstate job-seeking rule for unemployed, study whether to ax federal benefit
Gov. Eric Holcomb is set to reinstate a requirement that those applying to collect unemployment benefits actively seek jobs and be available for work — a requirement that the state has waived since the beginning of the pandemic.
Indianapolis-area employers reluctant to require employee vaccinations
Around central Indiana, employers are offering plenty of incentives to encourage their workers to get vaccinations as part of an effort to keep their office towers, stores, warehouses and factory floors safe for co-workers and visitors. But few, if any, are requiring workers to get vaccinated.
Biden repeals Trump-era rule on gig workers
The Biden administration nullified a Trump-era rule Wednesday that would have made it easier to classify workers as independent contractors, blocking a change supported by delivery and ride-hailing services.
Biden touts $28.6B restaurant relief program, orders tacos
Setting foot in a restaurant for his first time as president, Joe Biden made a Cinco de Mayo taco and enchilada run to highlight his administration’s $28.6 billion program to help eateries that lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Michelle Allen named Director of Office of Administrative Law Proceedings
Michelle Allen, deputy director and general counsel of the Office of Administrative Law Proceedings, has been selected as the office’s new director, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Thursday.
FedEx workers are likely to suffer trauma, need support after mass shooting
What appears to be the deadliest workplace shooting in Indiana history is likely to cause a wide range of effects on surviving employees at the FedEx Ground Operations Center, from shock and confusion to grief and depression.
Store managers not involved in customer injuries not liable for negligence, justices rule
In answering a certified question from a federal judge, the Indiana Supreme Court held Wednesday that store managers who are not directly involved in a patron’s injury on store property cannot be held liable for negligence under Indiana law.
Indiana Senate OKs optional pregnant worker accommodations
Indiana legislators gave final approval to a bill that won’t require businesses to make accommodations for pregnant workers, despite an appeal from Gov. Eric Holcomb for a law requiring more protections.
Ex-partner hits back with counterclaim in George & Farinas fight
Longtime Indianapolis asbestos litigation lawyer Linda George is accusing her former law partner in court filings of “hostile, abusive, vituperative, ungrateful and selfish conduct” and of stealing the firm’s assets and employees to open a competing law firm.
COA: Unemployment dispute fails to clear good cause hurdle
A car salesman who claimed his employer failed to pay him what he had been promised could not get the Indiana Court of Appeals to buy his argument that he qualified for unemployment benefits because he had good cause to quit his job.
Intentional misclassification of construction workers causing concern
Workers on construction sites across Indiana can be found nailing plywall from atop scaffolds, scaling roofs or painting newly built homes. But what isn’t evident is whether those workers are part of a shady trend construction industry experts say is a serious concern — payroll tax fraud.
Lilly exec created hostile work environment for women, former lobbyist claims in suit
A former Washington, D.C., lobbyist for Eli Lilly and Co. claims a top executive at the company made sexist comments about her, mocked her physical appearance and subjected her and other women to a hostile work environment.
SCOTUS seems ready to rule against unions in farm case
The United States Supreme Court appeared ready Monday to side with two California agriculture businesses that want to bar labor organizers from their property, a case that could be another blow to unions.