Yesterday, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Maine, other New England states, and Puerto Rico, affirmed a jury verdict against Walgreens in a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) case. This case presented an interesting issue of first impression for the First Circuit–whether an employee…
The AARP Public Policy Institute recently released a paper on workplace discrimination against workers who have to care for an elderly relative. As the baby boomer generation continues to age, this will become an increasingly important issue. While there are a patchwork of federal, state, and local laws that, in…
The Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has found that the Waterville Police Department discriminated against Sgt. Jeffrey Bearce when it refused to accommodate medical limitations related to leukemia (a form of cancer). After battling leukemia for about a year, Bearce’s doctor cleared him to return to work in December 2010…
A former Muslim employee of the Walt Disney Co. has filed a lawsuit against Disney for religious discrimination. The former employee, Imane Boudlal, is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Morocco. According to her lawsuit, while she worked at the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa’s Storyteller’s Café, co-workers harassed her…
Earlier this month, Illinois became the latest state to pass a law that prohibits employers from requiring job applicants and employees to give employers access to their profiles on social networking websites like Facebook. Maryland and Delaware have also passed similar laws. Illinois, Maryland, and Delaware enacted these laws because…
A former Bank of America manager has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America alleging that the company instituted an “apartheid” system of business allocation. The former manager, a black man named Jack Mitchell, claims that Bank of America steered black employees to low-income black neighborhoods because the bank didn’t…
Yesterday, Judge Torresen of the U.S. District Court of Maine held that Great Falls Insurance Company’s former CEO must pursue his age discrimination and related employment law claims against the company, and others affiliated with it, in arbitration. An arbitrator is a private individual, not affiliated with the courts, who…
On July 10, 2012, the U.S. District Court of Maine denied Pine State Trading’s motion to dismiss a disability discrimination lawsuit against it. A former Pine State Trading truck driver, David Gilks, filed the lawsuit against Pine State Trading because it decided to fire him rather than accommodate his disabilities.…
Yesterday, three former employees of the retail clothing store Wet Seal sued the company alleging that it engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African Americans. Attached to the lawsuit was an email from the Senior VP of Store Operations who, after performing a variety of store visits,…
As many people know, it is tough to be unemployed and looking for work particularly in times of high unemployment when you have to compete against more people for fewer jobs. For people with disabilities, it can be even more stressful because they are not sure if an employer will…