Jim Shrimp's Legal Insights
Sexual Orientation Discrimination: The Legal Jumble
April 5, 2017 By James Shrimp Imagine getting married, legally, on Saturday and then getting terminated by your employer on Monday because of who you married? For members of the LGBT community that is a possibility for which currently there is no, or very limited, legal recourse. But the tide may slowly be changing. On […]
The Oscars®, March Madness and Work: How Does an Employer Manage Distracted Working
March 8, 2017 By James Shrimp As most of you know, at the Oscars® Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the wrong movie for the Best Picture Award. In the initial hours after the show, many held Warren Beatty accountable (including me), because he clearly recognized something was wrong with the card – but showed […]
“Subgroup” Disparate Impact is a Basis for Age Discrimination Claim
January 17, 2017 By James B. Shrimp For any business contemplating a reduction in force (“RIF”) it is no doubt a difficult process given the knowledge that you are going to layoff a significant number of employees. From a business perspective, for businesses in PA, NJ and DE, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has […]
The NLRB Takes Aim at Employee Handbooks Affecting Employment Law
April 19, 2016 By: James B. Shrimp The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and it’s field offices continue to seek to influence the non-unionized, private sector workplace. Last week, an administrative law judge in an NLRB proceeding involving Quicken Loans, and affiliated companies, Fathead and One Reverse Mortgage, ruled that over 20 provisions of an […]
Ban the Box: Hiring Just Got More Complicated in the City of Philadelphia
December 18, 2015 By: Jim B. Shrimp, Esq. For decades, private employers have used a number of tools to analyze and evaluate candidates for positions, including requiring resumes, work and personal references and the completion of an application. Two tools that have also been used are credit checks and criminal background checks. I wrote an […]
Facebook and Employee Discipline: Employers “Dislike” the NLRB
November 16, 2015 By James B. Shrimp, Esq. Can an employer get into trouble for firing an employee over something the employee wrote on Facebook? Apparently, yes. The United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act “by taking certain […]
Association Discrimination: Another Consideration When You Cut One (an employee that is)
October 9, 2015 By James B. Shrimp, Esq. This past weekend, I was thinking about blogging, while standing in my kitchen cutting the cheese (I was cutting the cheese for a party I was having). I concluded that there are some blogs that you need to hold in because you aren’t quite sure the audience can […]
Workplace Conflict: Management Lessons from Jonathan Papelbon
By James B. Shrimp, Esq. This past weekend Jonathan Papelbon, the talented and unpredictable closer for the Washington Nationals, had a heated discussion with MVP-candidate Bryce Harper about Harper’s failure to run hard after hitting a fly ball. The heated discussion quickly turned physical, when Papelbon grabbed Harper around the neck and pushed him up against […]
Working at Amazon: A Demanding Workplace or Just Normal?
August 25, 2015 By James B. Shrimp, Esq. Many of you likely had the opportunity to review the New York Times expose on employment attitudes and conditions within Amazon. It makes a good summer beach read. The article paints a picture of aggressive and uncaring management, employer sanctioned back-biting among coworkers, long hours, few vacations […]
Suspension with Pay is Not Discrimination
August 18, 2015 By James B. Shrimp, Esq. When an employer investigates potential wrongdoing by an employee, there are a number of potential landmines. One is the issue of how to treat the employee during the internal investigation; it’s possible the treatment of the employee could lead to liability under various employment discrimination statutes. In […]