News You Can Use

WK&G Labor & Employment Alerts - Our attorneys keep an eye out for changes in federal and state regulations that may have an impact on your business. Take a look at the most recent email alerts.

Ask the Legal Professionals - The attorneys in WK&G's labor & employment group publish the answers to common questions about employment law once-a-month in the Puget Sound Business Journal. Take a look at WK&G's latest answers to the questions that you yourself may have been asking.

Featured Articles

Sears recently agreed to pay $15 million to settle several class actions brought in four states on behalf of in-home service technicians who were dispatched from their homes directly to the homes they service. Read the full article.

Effective June 7, 2006 the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD, RCW 49.60) was amended to include sexual orientation as a protected class. Employers should therefore make sure that sexual orientation is included as a protected group in your equal employment and harassment policies in handbooks, and review other policies or practices which might be impacted. Read the full article.

Employees frequently file Title VII claims based on longstanding employer practices well predating the EEOC limitations period for filing a complaint. Under §706 of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §2000e-5(e)(1), only those "unlawful employment practice[s]" that are complained of in a timely-filed charge of discrimination to the EEOC can form the basis for Title VII liability. For claims arising in "non-deferral" states, such as Alabama where the cases discussed below arose, the applicable charge must have been filed with the EEOC within 180 days "after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred" to be timely. Read the full article.

One area where the National Labor Relations Act has been used as both a sword and a shield in a non-union setting is in cases involving employer discipline or termination of employees who criticize them. The employee may fall under the protection of the National Labor Relations Act if the comments are arguably related to a "labor dispute" and thus fall under the broad protection for employees involved in "concerted activities" even if the employee is not a union member or even advocating unionization. In Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc. v. NLRB, the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia undermined this employee and union approach. Read the full article.

Seminars

WK&G's Labor & Employment Breakfast Seminar: Pandemic Flu Preparedness - Seattle, WA (September 21, 2006). Seattle Members Sheryl Willert and Jo Vestal will discuss the obligations of employers in times of pandemic flu and other such disasters.

WK&G's Labor & Employment Fall Update Seminar - Bellevue, WA (October 19, 2006). WK&G's labor and employment attorneys will provide seminar attendees an overview of significant issues in the labor and employment landscape, including FMLA, email privacy, workplace relationships and traditional labor law. Space is limited and the session is free, so please reserve your place early.

WK&G's Labor & Employment Breakfast Seminar: Discovery of Unsavory Conduct: What is an employer to do? - Seattle, WA (November 2006). Further details about this breakfast seminar, to be presented by Seattle Member Kim Baker and Seattle Associate Megan Pedersen, will be available in October. Keep your eye out for a detailed email invitation.

Notice

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Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC - 2006
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