New York Employment Attorney Blog
Middle School Principal Katherine Mulderig filed a sexual discrimination complaint in March 2011 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that Lake Placid, New York School Superintendant, Dr. Randy Richards, made sexually discriminatory comments to her while proposing a job change. Ms. Mulderig plans to file a civil action in federal court in early 2012, based upon the sexual discrimination allegations asserted in her EEOC Charge of Discrimination. According to press reports, Mr. Richards told Ms. Mulderig in February 2011 that he wanted her to switch from middle school principal to elementary school principal because he wanted someone “bitchier to govern the bitchy” female teachers in the school. See Principal Files Discrimination Complaint.
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New York Senator Schumer Introduces Bill to Cover Over-the-Road Bus Drivers Under Fair Labor Standards Act
Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) introduced a bill amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to cover over-the-road bus drivers and requiring that they be paid overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. Currently, over-the-road bus drivers are exempt from the maximum hours provisions of the FLSA. The bill, The Driver Fatigue Prevention Act (S. 1977), revises the FLSA, to eliminate the overtime exemption, which applies to “any employee with respect to whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service.” As a result, over-the-road bus drivers will be entitled to overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a given workweek.
An ‘over-the-road bus’ “means a bus characterized by an elevated passenger deck located over a baggage compartment.”
U.S. Department of Labor Releases Fact Sheets on Retaliation
Today, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division released three new fact sheets addressing the topic of retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA).
Each of these statutes contain provisions prohibiting an employer from retaliating against an employee for asserting rights covered by each of the statutes.
Fact Sheet #77A, Prohibiting Retaliation Under the FLSA, provides general information concerning the FLSA’s prohibition of retaliating against any employee who has filed a complaint or cooperated in an investigation and is available on the WHD website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs77a.htm.
Federal Bill Seeks to Expand Computer Employee Exemption Under Fair Labor Standards Act
Recently, a bill was introduced in the Senate (S.1747), which seeks to expand the scope of the Fair Labor Standards Acts’ current exemption for computer employees. The bill, which is referred to as the “Computer Professional Update” Act (“CPU Act”), attempts to modernize the computer employee exemption by making it applicable to employees, who perform computer-related tasks and work that simply did not exist in the 1990s when the exemption was last modified.
The proposed CPU Act comes in response to the evolution of computer technology, and seeks to take into account changes in the use of computers. For example, the CPU Act seeks to incorporate “information technology” jobs, and would refer to work relating to the internet, intranets, and networks, among other things.
If passed, the CPU Act would result in fewer computer employees being entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.