27 result(s) found for employee
What’s the Difference Between an Employee and an Independent Contractor?
…onship is never easy, but the process highlights more distinctions between employees and independent contractors. Employees usually do not realize a profit or a loss as a result of the services they provide. Employees have the right to end their professional relationship with the employer at any time for any reason, and employers may dismiss their employees under at-will employment laws. As most independent contractors sign a binding contract at t…
What is an Employee Nowadays?
…e themselves and the companies that hire them. That is why the meaning of “employee” is as important as ever. For the workers, being an employee instead of an independent contractor can entitle them to health care, dental care, 401(k) eligibility, overtime pay, and/or termination benefits, not to mention the possibility of having work-related expenses covered. For the companies, classifying workers as independent contractors saves them money, beca…
Lawsuits Allege Amazon Discriminates Against Muslims and Pregnant Women
… accommodations to work there. They care more about the numbers than their employees.” Beverly and other pregnant employees allege that management would frequently complain about their slowed work pace and need for bathroom breaks. Another pregnant employee visited the emergency room with the flu where a doctor told her there were difficulties detecting her baby’s heartbeat. When the employee provided management with a doctor’s note advising she t…
Criminalizing Whistleblowers: Big Ag Wins at Consumers’ Expense
…has been there for years and never intended to become a whistleblower. The employee notices sick animals being slaughtered and put into the food chain, and after complaining to management he sees that the company has done nothing to stop this from happening. The only way to prove that this is happening is to videotape it to show it to the FDA or other local regulators. This employee may be saving thousands from an e-coli outbreak (or something eve…
Kid’s Castle Biometric Privacy Lawsuit
…en, publicly available policy for the retention, usage, and destruction of employee’s biometric data Failing to disclose sharing employee biometric data with third-party vendors Each of these alleged violations are clearly defined and mandated under BIPA, which carries statutory damages of up to $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation of the law. If you are a current or former employee of Kid’s Castle Learning Center, you may be entitled…
Amazon, Walmart Patent Tech to Constantly Monitor Employees
… concerns that Amazon and other employers are “increasingly treating their employees like robots.” And in a job where employees are already highly scrutinized, the monitoring bracelets could negatively affect morale and increase anxiety. Not to be outdone by its biggest competitor, Walmart has also patented monitoring equipment intended to spy on workers. The “audio surveillance system” would be used to provide a “performance metric for the employ…
Wendy’s, Plastics Giant Face Biometric Fingerprinting Lawsuits
…ngerprints are unique, permanent biometric identifiers associated with the employee. This exposes employees to serious and irreversible privacy risks. For example, if a fingerprint database is hacked, breached, or otherwise exposed, employees have no means by which to prevent identity theft and unauthorized tracking. These concerns are certainly well-founded. Major retailers, banks, healthcare providers, and financial institutions have had their s…
American Family Insurance Lawsuit FAQ
…the health and other welfare benefits plans American Family offered to its employees. If I’m an American Family agent, does that mean that I am now an employee? No. The Judge has made no decision on the classification issue and the jury’s decision was based on the law under ERISA. The jury’s decision, if adopted by the Court, does not automatically convert agents to employees for all purposes. As we have said before, the case seeks ERISA benefits,…
Two Minutes for Discrimination: The Newest Penalty for Federally-Contracted Companies
…his or her case or settle for less in private, forced arbitration than the employee would in the courtroom setting. One study at Cornell University found that employees complaining of workplace discrimination in court, rather than work-mandated arbitration, won up to three times as often and with damage awards that were five times higher, on average. For those who want protection in the workplace, it is important to weigh-in heavily in support of …
American Family Insurance ERISA Litigation
…es, and controlling the day-to-day operations of every aspect of the agent-employee’s business, such as business hours, computer and telephone systems, and who the agent-employee can hire and fire. On March 2, 2016, Judge Donald C. Nugent granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification, which will allow Wexler Boley & Elgersma and its co-counsel to present evidence common to the agent-employees at a trial currently scheduled to begin on January…
A Breakthrough Ruling on Employment Arbitration
…d on May 26th, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sided with the employee, holding that Epic’s class action waiver was unenforceable. The Seventh Circuit held that class actions have long been protected “concerted activities” under Section 7 of the NLRA,[2] and an employer cannot ask its employees to waive those protections in an employment arbitration provision. By operation of Epic’s arbitration provision, once the trial court ruled th…
Supreme Court Decisions Take Steps Toward Greater Government Transparency
…ould not say, in ordinary parlance, that a ‘personnel file’ is any file an employee uses, or that a ‘personnel department’ is any department in which an employee serves.” Justice Kagan went on to explain that “[t]hese data and maps calculate and visually portray the magnitude of hypothetical detonations. By no stretch of imagination do they relate to ‘personnel rules and practices’…. They concern the physical rules governing explosives, not the wo…
Is Starbucks Base Pay Increase Enough to Make a Difference?
…omers and online orders via Starbucks’ app continually pour in. With fewer employees per shift manning the floor and a high demand for that crucial caffeine fix so many of us need to function, Starbucks has been accused by many of their current workers – or ‘partners’ as the coffee giant refers to them – of cutting back, when they should be expanding, in order to boost profits in the short term. In an online petition created by tenured employee Ja…
Another Lawyer Hero
…usiness was lucrative, so they denied any liability and refused to pay for employee health care. In that era, the law did little to protect workers from on-the-job health hazards. Through the 1920s, many workers sued, but with no real success. Courts dismissed several lawsuits against the watch-manufacturers, with no recovery for the workers. But eventually Chicago trial lawyer Leonard Grossman took up the fight. The Radium Girls describes Grossma…
Changes to Tip Pooling Rule Could Cost Workers Billions
…would be able to pool any tips they earn above the $7.25 minimum wage. For employees who depend on their tips to supplement their income, this could be disastrous. The argument can be made that back-of-house employees deserve a cut of a server’s tips. Their work ultimately contributes to a customer’s dining experience, and can positively or negatively impact the amount of gratuity given to a server. However, the proposal put forth by the DoL does …
Wexler Wallace Files Against the Makers of Nexium
… of a class of end-payors (i.e., consumers and third-party payors, such as employee benefit funds and insurers) against AstraZeneca for allegedly entering into non-competition agreements with a number of generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to keep generic versions of its blockbuster drug Nexium off the market. According to the complaint, filed Nov. 28, AstraZeneca agreed to pay generic defendants, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals and…
Women File Class Action Against Bayer for Gender Discrimination
… the article stated that poll results concluded that the majority of Bayer employees preferred to work for a male manager since men are “easier to deal with” and “much less likely to have a hidden agenda, suffer mood swings or get involved in office politics.” But when female employees brought up the issue of gender discrimination, plaintiffs claim that Bayer showed lack of concern, telling them that “[they] know better. The Company won’t do anyth…
Know The Territory
… Corp.,[3] an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by a former Costco employee. When Costco moved for summary judgment, the worker responded by objecting to many of the fact statements in Costco’s Local Rule 56.1 Statement, and responded to many others by cross-referencing other court papers that cited evidence relating to that factual proposition. The worker did not directly “admit” or “deny” many of Costco’s statements of fact, and he did n…
Judge Rules American Family Insurance Misclassified its Agents as Independent Contractors
…an Family Insurance, Case No.: 13-cv-00437) alleged that by misclassifying employees as contractors, American Family Insurance violated ERISA, the federal law protecting employee retirement benefits. Judge Nugent agreed that the due to the degree of control American Family Insurance retained over its agents, they must be regarded as employees as a matter of law. The plaintiffs and class were represented by trial counsel consisting of Erin K. Dicki…
Investigations
…tle Learning Center over the unlawful collection and handling of sensitive employee data under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Read more. Contaminated Baby Food Lawsuit Wexler Boley & Elgersma is currently investigating claims that several several best-selling baby food brands may be contaminated by detectable levels of heavy metals and perchlorate. If you believe that you or a loved one have been harmed, contact us today to discus…