The U.S. Department of Labor recently highlighted the distressing problem of workplace injuries in the health care industry. Health care workers, such as nurses and nurse aides, suffer work-related injuries and illnesses at a rate almost twice as high as the rate of workers in private industry. They suffer injuries…
Last month, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Missouri, held that a reasonable jury could determine that Tyson Fresh Meats violated the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when it fired Delbert Hudson. The Eighth Circuit reversed the trial court’s decision to dismiss the case. In December…
Earlier this month, bills were reintroduced in the U.S. House and the Senate that would amend the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) so that it would protect employees who take time off from work due to the death of a child. The bill is called the Parental Bereavement Leave…
The legislatures in Connecticut and Vermont are considering bills that would further expand the availability of paid sick leave for workers. As we’ve reported before, paid sick leave laws are beginning to pop up in various parts of the country. However, Maine, unlike some of its neighboring New England states,…
The United States is one of the few countries in the world that does not require employers to provide paid maternity leave to employees. A U.N. study of 185 countries found that the United States, Papua New Guinea, and Oman are the only countries that do not provide paid maternity…
Last week, a federal court in Massachusetts held that a reasonable jury could find that the Salter School discriminated against former employee Victoria Domenichetti because she was pregnant and would need maternity leave. Ms. Domenichetti worked as the Externship Coordinator at the Salter School’s Fall River campus, which is a…
Last month, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a reasonable jury could determine that the defendant-employer violated the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when it fired the plaintiff-employee after she returned from medical leave related to a knee replacement surgery. The FMLA, among other things, requires…
Last week, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, affirmed a trial court’s holding that two United Airlines contractors, Trans States Airlines and GoJet Airlines, jointly employed former employee Darren Cuff under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA requires covered employers to provide medical leave…
In most places in the United States, including Maine, employers do not have to provide paid leave to employees who need to take time off from work because they are sick, to care for a sick family member with, or to care for a newborn child. The federal Family and…
In a case that the Maine Employee Rights Group (MERG) filed against F.W. Webb Co., the U.S. District Court of Maine has found that a jury could reasonably conclude that in 2009 F.W. Webb unlawfully fired Mr. Crosby, a former truck driver based out of its South Portland location, because…