• Thank you for all your help on [AW's] case. Without you, nothing would have come from it. We will be sending people your way. We hope that we will not need your help again, but if we do you will be hearing from us.”

    - J.W., East Machias.

  • We appreciate everything you have done for us. You made this whole process much easier on [P.C.] and me. Words cannot express our gratitude.”

    - K.C., Sanford.

  • Thank you for your efforts and hard work in resolving my case. Your leadership and initiatives were outstanding. I felt truly represented, respected and was treated with honesty and integrity. We are grateful for a positive result and grateful for the excellent teamwork!”

    - L.D., Portland.

  • I want to thank you and your staff for all you and they did. The professional and compassionate way my case was handled is greatly appreciated. It was a pleasure to do business with your firm and if the need ever arises I will be back in touch. Thank you again.”

    - M.H., Bangor.
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An investigator with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has found that On the Edge Chipping in Phillips, Maine unlawfully fired Daniel Harnden, a skidder operator, because Mr. Harnden complained about charges the company put on his personal John Deere account. Mr. Harnden complained to On the Edge about the charges on December 4, 2009 and called John Deere on January 15, 2010 to tell it that On the Edge made charges to his account. Days later, On the Edge fired Mr. Harnden allegedly for performance issues.

The MHRC investigator found that most of the alleged performance issues On the Edge claimed it fired Mr. Harnden for stemmed from incidents that occurred long before Mr. Harnden complained about On the Edge making charges to his John Deere account. If On the Edge was really going to fire Mr. Harnden for those incidents, it would have done so long before Mr. Harnden made his complaints about the John Deere charges.

The MHRC will vote whether to adopt or reject the investigator’s recommendation at its next meeting on October 31, 2011. If the MHRC agrees with the investigator, and finds reasonable grounds to believe that On the Edge violated Mr. Harnden’s rights, the MHRC will attempt to facilitate a settlement between Mr. Harnden and On the Edge. If there is no settlement, a lawsuit could ensue.

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The former CFO for Proskauer Rose, a large law firm in New York, has sued it for disability discrimination. The former CFO, Elly Rosenthal, claims that the law firm demoted her and then fired her because she had breast cancer that required her to take medical leave. Ms. Rosenthal, who had served as the firm’s CFO since 1992, took several weeks of medical leave in 2008 while she underwent two surgeries to treat her cancer. According to Ms. Rosenthal, some in the law firm were supportive of her but others were not. So, when she was fired she felt “blindsided.” “I don’t know how we went from ‘Elly, get well and there will always be a place for you’ to ‘By the way, be out of here in three days,'” said Ms. Rosenthal.

Interestingly, a large part of Proskauer Rose’s business involves defending employers from employment discrimination lawsuits. Now, it has to defend itself.

If her allegations are true, Ms. Rosenthal is certainly not the first person to need medical leave from work to fight a life threatening disease and then lose her job because of it. The Maine Employee Rights Group has represented employees who have faced similar circumstances. If your employer is discriminating against you because you need to take medical leave due to a serious illness or disability, you should contact the Maine Employee Rights Group to learn about your rights.

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The Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has found reasonable grounds to believe that Lank Machining discriminated against Ronald Vilandry because of his age. According to the report from the MHRC, Mr. Vilandry interviewed for a job with Lank Machining as a CNC Operator. Mr. Vilandry maintains that during his interview the owner of Lank Machining correctly surmised that Mr. Vilandry was in his 60’s; told Mr. Vilandry that he was also in his 60’s; and said that people their age should be thinking about retirement.

Instead of Mr. Vilandry, Lank Machining hired an applicant who was about 40 years old and less qualified than Mr. Vilandry. Mr. Vilandry had experience working with the equipment that Lank Machining used. The younger applicant that the company hired did not. Mr. Vilandry also had more experience, in general, than the younger applicant that the company hired. Lank Machining claimed that the younger applicant’s lack of experience was irrelevant because it hired him for a position different than the CNC Operator position that Mr. Vilandry sought. This claim is contrary to what Lank Machining told the temp agency that it used to find the younger applicant. Lank Machining told the temp agency that it hired the younger applicant as a CNC Operator.

Mr. Vilandry is represented by Chad Hansen of the Maine Employee Rights Group.

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A group of lawmakers in Ohio have introduced a bill, HB 335, that would ban discrimination against LGBT employees. The lawmakers who introduced the bill include a Republican. The Republican party currently controls both houses of the Ohio state legislature. The last time a similar bill was voted on in the Ohio legislature, it died in the Republican controlled state senate.

“Ohio can no longer afford to drive away the talented work force of tomorrow by not enacting this legislation,” said Rep. Ross McGregor, a Republican from Springfield, Ohio. “… By enacting HB 335, we are saying that Ohio is a place where everyone can live and work free of discrimination.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, Maine, 19 other states, and the District of Columbia outlaw discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation. Maine, 14 other states, and the District of Columbia outlaw discrimination against employees based on their gender identity.

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The American Jobs Act, a bill that President Obama is urging Congress to pass, would prohibit certain employers from discriminating against unemployed applicants. Under the American Jobs Act, it would be an “unlawful employment practice” if a business with 15 or more employees refused to hire a person “because of the individual’s status as unemployed.” Detractors of the bill argue that it will open the door to “nuisance lawsuits.” Supporters of the bill hail the protections against unemployment discrimination as a common sense way to protect people who have been unemployed a long time due to no fault of their own from unfair discrimination.

The District of Columbia and Chicago are also considering passing laws that prohibit unemployment discrimination. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a similar bill into law earlier this year that prohibits employers from posting job advertisements which state that unemployed people may not apply.

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Matthew Doucette, a 29 year-old Sysco warehouse worker, injured his back in April 2004. He was on light duty for two weeks but lost no earnings as a result of the injury. Sysco terminated his employment for reasons unrelated to his injury in May 2004 and Doucette had no further problems with his back until 2008, when he reinjured it while working for a different employer. In January 2009, Doucette filed a petition seeking compensation from his April 2004 date of injury to the present and continuing. The hearing officer found that Doucette was entitled to the protection of the Act for the 2004 injury even though he lost no earnings because of it. Due to a procedural glitch, the insurance company failed to file the Notice of Controversy contesting the claim within the required 14 day time period. The insurance company filed the Notice on the morning of the 15th day. The hearing officer found that the insurance company had violated the “14 day rule” requiring insurance companies to pay or contest claims within 14 days and ordered the insurance company to pay total incapacity benefits from the original date of injury, April 2004, forward, even though Doucette lost no earnings as a result of that injury. The result was a $140,000 award to Doucette. The Court acknowledged that while the result may be unfair to the insurance company, it had no authority to void the penalty.

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On September 16, 2011, federal judge D. Brock Hornby granted a motion for conditional certification of a collective action against FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. (Fed Ex) for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A group of Fed Ex drivers brought this case against Fed Ex because they claim that Fed Ex misclassified them as “independent contractors” instead of employees and, consequently, failed to pay them overtime. In granting the motion for conditional certification, Judge Hornby found that the drivers who brought the case held similar jobs and suffered from the same allegedly unlawful policy. Conditional certification is a procedural hurdle that the drivers had to overcome before they could begin to send notices to other drivers who may be eligible to join the lawsuit against Fed Ex.

Many employers misclassify employees as independent contractors and, as a result, fail to respect these misclassified employees’ rights to overtime pay and other workplace protections. If your employer classifies you as an independent contractor but you believe that your employment relationship is more like that of an employee, you should call an experienced employment lawyer to learn more about your rights.

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Today, the U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine denied Lincare, Inc.’s motion to dismiss a claim of retaliation under the False Claims Act (FCA). The anti-retaliation provisions of the FCA protect whistleblowers from retaliation when they “pursue, investigate, or contribute to an action exposing fraud against the [federal] government.”

Former Lincare employee Adam Jewell filed his FCA retaliation claim after Lincare terminated his employment. Mr. Jewell’s lawsuit alleges that Lincare terminated his employment because he reported to Lincare that his immediate supervisor was forging signatures on documents and backdating documents that Lincare submitted to the government for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Lincare argued that terminating an employee for blowing the whistle on his supervisor’s practice of forging and backdating Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement documents does not violate the FCA. The Court rejected this argument. It held that Lincare could not terminate Mr. Jewel for reporting his supervisor because his reports “concerned Lincare’s fraudulent billing practices.”

Attorneys Peter Thompson, Chad T. Hansen, and Allison Gray, of the Maine Employee Rights Group, represent Mr. Jewell in this lawsuit.

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The Maine Employee Rights Group is currently pursuing a lawsuit which alleges that MaineGeneral unlawfully discriminated against Adela Blethen because of her race, national origin, color, and her complaints about racial harassment. Ms. Blethen, a Hispanic woman from Hallowell, Maine, worked for MaineGeneral as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) from June 2006 until November 2009. Ms. Blethen worked in the Gray Birch facility, where residents received long term care. Ms. Blethen’s lawsuit alleges that MaineGeneral discriminated and retaliated against her after she reported to MaineGeneral that residents were calling her derogatory, racist names like “black [expletive]” and “that Mexican.”

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On August 29, 2011, the Kennebec County Superior Court ruled in favor of the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA) and affirmed an arbitration award in favor of MSNA member Krista McCormick. Ms. McCormick worked as a nurse at Down East Community Hospital (DECH) until she was terminated on September 11, 2009. In accordance with MSNA’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with DECH, MSNA filed a grievance on behalf of Ms. McCormick contesting the termination. The grievance process led to an arbitration where a neutral arbitrator, who serves a role similar to a judge, found that DECH terminated Ms. McCormick without just cause in violation of the CBA. Consequently, the arbitrator ordered DECH to reinstate Ms. McCormick and compensate her for lost wages and benefits. This would’ve been a relatively straightforward case except for the fact that a court-appointed receiver, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS), was in control of DECH at the time of Ms. McCormick’s termination.

After the arbitrator ruled in favor of MSNA and Ms. McCormick, EMHS refused to abide by the arbitrator’s decision. So, MSNA had to file a lawsuit in court to enforce the arbitrator’s decision. EMHS argued that the court could not enforce the arbitrator’s decision against DECH because EMHS was the entity that terminated Ms. McCormick, not DECH. EMHS further argued that the court could not enforce the arbitrator’s decision against it because, as a court-appointed receiver, it was immune from MSNA’s lawsuit.

If EMHS had prevailed with its arguments, it would have deprived Ms. McCormick of any remedy for her wrongful termination. After thoroughly evaluating the various complex legal arguments that EMHS made, and MSNA made in response, the court rejected EMHS’s position and ruled in favor of MSNA and Ms. McCormick.

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