Employment
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EEOC Sues for Transgender Discrimination
Recent action by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has raised the specter of whether transgender persons are considered protected under the federal discrimination laws. The EEOC has sued a company in Denver that allegedly discriminated against a transgender man who applied for a position as manager. This case addresses the question whet…
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Judge Strikes Down DOL’s Proposed Overtime Rule!
Posted on September 8, 2017, Authored by Sara J. Ackermann, Filed under Employment
Sara J. AckermannChair of Employment & Benefits Practice GroupAttorney
Wausau OfficeFinally, it appears we have closure on this saga that started over a year ago! On August 31st, the same Texas federal district court judge who granted a preliminary injunction last November delaying the effective date of the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule, issued a final judgment invalidating the rule. As you may recall, the Obama-era ov…
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Check Your Handbooks!!! UPS Settles Maximum Leave Policy Violations for $2 million.
Posted on August 9, 2017, Authored by Sara J. Ackermann, Filed under EmploymentSara J. AckermannChair of Employment & Benefits Practice GroupAttorney
Wausau OfficeThe EEOC filed suit against UPS on behalf of approximately 90 current and former employees for multiple violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The agency charged UPS with failing to properly accommodate employees with disabilities. Most importantly, the EEOC alleged that UPS had a maximum leave policy that automatically terminat…
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IRS Encourages Self-Assessment to Identify Fringe Benefit Errors
Posted on August 3, 2017, Authored by Mary Ellen Schill, Filed under Employment
Mary Ellen SchillDirectorAttorney
Wausau OfficeAs much as I love tax law, filling out another tax form isn’t high on my list of fun things to do. So when the IRS issues a form that isn’t legally required to complete, should you? If you are an employer that provides one or more fringe benefits to your employees, you may want to put IRS Form 14581-A on your bucket list. Here’s a link to the Fo…
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Federal Court Reverses NLRB “Positive Work Environment” Handbook Decision
Posted on August 1, 2017, Authored by Robert J. Reinertson, Filed under Employment
Robert J. ReinertsonAttorney
Wausau OfficeThe National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) created controversy a couple of years ago when it ruled that handbook policies maintained by T-Mobile USA requiring employees to maintain a positive work environment were illegal because they could be seen as having a chilling effect on employees’ unionizing and collective bargaining rights. Last week, th…
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Eligibility for Overtime Pay – Redo?
Recent action taken by the Department of Labor has started to signal the likely “redo” of the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations regarding overtime pay and which employees are eligible for overtime pay. The Department of Labor issued a Request for Information document that asks employers to respond to a series of questions on overtime pay eligib…
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Wisconsin Court Re-affirms Employment At Will Principles
A recent decision from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has upheld the concept of “employment-at-will” and determined that an employment-at-will provision in an employment contract superseded company policies that provided alternative procedures to be followed when investigating inappropriate conduct of an employee. In a recent decision of the Distr…
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Right-to-Work Law Upheld
Without much fanfare, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Wisconsin Right-to-Work Law. The Right-to-Work Law passed in Wisconsin is similar to a law passed in Indiana and holds that a company may not enter into a labor agreement with a union representing company employees that requires the employees to join the union or to have uni…
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Attempted End Run Around Wisconsin’s Exclusive Remedy of Worker’s Compensation Fails in Asbestos Litigation in the Seventh Circuit
Posted on July 13, 2017, Authored by Russell W. Wilson, Filed under Employment
Russell W. WilsonOf Counsel
Wausau OfficeWisconsin’s exclusive remedy of worker’s compensation has long been a bulwark against civil suits brought by employees (subject to a few narrow exceptions not applicable here). This bulwark has survived a creative attack in an asbestos case in Pecher v. Owens-Illinois, Inc. 859 F.3d 396 (2017), which was decided on June 6, 2017. The case involved …
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A Seemingly Important Win for Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Insurance Carriers and Employers
Posted on July 11, 2017, Authored by Russell W. Wilson, Filed under EmploymentRussell W. WilsonOf Counsel
Wausau OfficeOn its face the decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Flug v. LIRC, 2017 WI 72 (decided on June 30, 2017), is a clear, important win for the employer side in common injuries that involve pre-existing degenerative conditions. The general circumstances presented in Flug are familiar. In that case, a forty-three year old retail store supervisor…
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Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules on Appleton School District Open Meetings Law
Posted on June 29, 2017, Authored by Robert J. Reinertson, Filed under EmploymentRobert J. ReinertsonAttorney
Wausau OfficeIn a unanimous and much-anticipated decision released today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a committee of school personnel formed to review materials for a high school course under a procedure set forth in school board rules is a “governmental body” subject to the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law. The case (Krueger v. Appleton Area School Dist…
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Joint Employer Status Rebuffed?
Recent action by the Trump Administration has raised a new question regarding joint employer status and whether particular employees hired (individually or through a company) to provide work for another company should be considered an employee of the hiring company. The past Department of Labor issued various memos that indicated a crackdown on in…
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Forfeitures for Ordinance Violations - When Are They Excessive?
Posted on June 2, 2017, Authored by Robert J. Reinertson, Filed under EmploymentRobert J. ReinertsonAttorney
Wausau OfficeAn age-old problem faced by municipal officials is what to do about residents and landowners who fail to take care of their properties and allow junk, debris, and other unsightly items to accumulate. This often leads to citizen complaints and even health and safety issues. When municipalities take enforcement action against such properties, they …
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Protected Employee Must Notify Employer of Need for Time Off
A recent decision in the Northern District of California highlighted the importance of employers applying a consistent rule that employees must notify the employer if they are unable to report to work, even if the employee suffers from a disabling condition. In a recent decision, the Federal Court Judge held that a Company properly terminated an e…
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Unemployment Benefits Cannot Be Denied Based on Eight Cash Transaction Inadvertent Errors Out of 80,000 Transactions in a 21-Month Period
Posted on May 22, 2017, Authored by Russell W. Wilson, Filed under EmploymentRussell W. WilsonOf Counsel
Wausau OfficeThe Wisconsin Supreme Court has interpreted the meaning of “substantial fault” in an unemployment insurance case, which will be applicable in worker’s compensation cases, as well. The case is Operton v. Labor and Industry Review Commission, 2017 WL 1743039. In doing so the Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, which…
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