By Lorie Almon, Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., and Ian Morrison
Back by popular demand, our Annual Workplace Class Action Report Webinar is less than 24 hours away – on Wednesday, February 27, 2013. We still have spaces available for the webinar – click here to register and attend.
The past twelve months represented a landmark year for complex
By Christopher DeGroff and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.
In a unique case, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania recently dismissed the EEOC’s allegations that the Defendant’s random drug and alcohol testing of probationary employees violated the ADA. The decision in EEOC v. United States Steel Corp., No. 10-CV-1283 (W.D. Pa. Feb. 20, 2013), is striking in
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Laura J. Maechtlen
On January 15, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld a district court order denying class certification in a nationwide Title VII gender discrimination action in Tabor, et al. v. Hilti, Inc., 703 F.3d 1206 (10th Cir., 2013). While the decision is favorable for employers, it demonstrates
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Christopher DeGroff
As we blogged about here previously, in the EEOC’s first draft of its Strategic Enforcement Plan, the Commission telegraphed that it was increasingly focused on preventing, and when necessary, litigating workplace harassment and retaliation allegations. The EEOC’s warning was no bluff, for in 2012 the EEOC filed a significant amount of harassment and
Continue Reading EEOC Kicks Off 2013 Settling Sex Harassment And Retaliation Lawsuits
By Christopher DeGroff and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.
We have been keeping our readers posted on the rapidly evolving developments concerning the EEOC’s agenda in 2013 and beyond. As we noted in past postings, the EEOC promised in its Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”) that it would increasingly focus on preventing and, when necessary, litigating retaliation claims. The EEOC sharpened its focus on
Continue Reading Rash Of Significant Settlements Signals EEOC Means Business About Retaliation
By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Jennifer A. Riley
On January 24, 2013, Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered an order in Baker v. Home Depot USA, Inc., No 11-CV-06768 (Jan. 24, 2013), striking Plaintiffs’ class allegations, and cutting off Plaintiffs’ attempts to bring a multi-state class action at the
By Christopher DeGroff and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.
We have frequently opined to readers of The Workplace Class Action Blog that litigating against the EEOC is, in a word, different. The EEOC arguably has an agenda that every U.S. employer shares: striving for a discrimination-free workplace. But the EEOC is also a political entity, and with that reality comes
Continue Reading Budget Woes May Significantly Impact EEOC – But Should Employers Worry Too?
By Pamela Q. Devata, Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Jennifer A. Riley, and David J. Rowland
On January 28, 2013, Judge Patricia A. Gaughan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio granted summary judgment to the defense in EEOC v. Kaplan Higher Education Corp, et al., No. 10-CV-2882, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11722 (N.D.
By Rebecca Bjork and Chris Palamountain
In 2011, we reported on In Re Countrywide Financial Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, No. 08-MD-1974, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118695 (W.D. Ky. Oct. 13, 2011), a decision denying class certification of a class of mortgage borrowers. In that case, African-American and Hispanic named plaintiffs alleged that Countrywide Financial discriminated against them in granting mortgage
The keynote speaker at today’s program on Employment Practices Liability Insurance sponsored by the American Conference Institute was Constance Barker, one of the Commissioners of the EEOC. We co-chaired the program and spoke on workplace class actions and EEOC litigation, and Commissioner Barker presented her thoughts in the keynote address on what 2013 has
Continue Reading “The EEOC Talks” – Perspectives From Today’s ACI Program
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