Employment Law
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 […]
Just Hang Up! The Perils of Pocket Dialing and Accidental Calls.
January 28, 2016 By: Thomas D. Rees, Esq. Dialing mistakes are no longer just material for late night comedy. Several recent employment cases show the consequences of “pocket dialing” on cell phones. The mistaken calls disclosed plans to fire executives, disrespect for management, conflicts of interest, and affairs with co-workers. The misdialing employees and supervisors […]
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 […]
Enforcing a Restrictive Covenant
There are four essential requirements that make a restrictive covenant enforceable in the eyes of the court. In a previous post, I detailed the types of restrictive covenants. Click here to read that post. Obtaining an employee’s signature on a post-employment restriction is easy work compared to court enforcement of a restrictive covenant. The former […]
The 7 Types of Restrictive Covenants to Know
Post-employment restrictive covenants in PA come in multiple varieties and the non-compete covenant is the most burdensome of all. Most people have heard, and are likely familiar with, the term noncompete, otherwise know as a restrictive covenant. It’s not uncommon for an employer to ask an employee to sign a non-compete clause, which sets limitations […]
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 […]