Kentucky Employment Law Blog

Fair Pay Law Signed By President Obama

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act today became the first bill signed into law by President Obama the New York Times reports, "Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation." The law's namesake, Lilly Ledbetter, was cheated out of money she earned during nearly 20 years of employment by Goodyear Tire. She went to trial, a jury awarded her all of her back pay along with the damages. But the United States Supreme Court took it away, ruling two years ago that she waited too long in filing her suit. The bill signed by President Obama today reverses that wrong and unjust decision. As the president said this afternoon:

“It is fitting that with the very first bill I sign — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — we are upholding one of this nation’s first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness.”

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com

Retaliation Protections Applicable To Employee Providing Information In Internal Investigation

Retaliation against an employee that provides information in an in-house investigation by an employer regarding discriminatory practices in the workplace violates the anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII the Supreme Court ruled yesterday in Crawford v Metro Govt of Nashville, No 06-1595 (January 26, 2009).

The Nashville Metro Government launched an investigation "into rumors of sexual harassment" by a Hughes, the employee relations director for the government's school district. Crawford, a 30 year employee, described to a human resources investigator several instances of sexually harassing behavior by Hughes:

• an instance in which Hughes answered her greeting "by grabbing his crotch and saying 'You know what's up'";
• repeated instances in which Hughes "put his crotch up to her window"; and,
• one occasion where he entered her office and "grabbed her head and pulled it to his crotch" 

The metro government took no action against Hughes but fired Crawford, accusing her of embezzlement. She filed suit claiming that her firing was in retaliation for the information she had provided in the human resources investigation regarding Hughes's misconduct. After the district court and Sixth Circuit ruled that the anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII were inapplicable to Coleman, the Supreme Court agreed to hear her case.

The Supreme Court ruled that Crawford was protected by the anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII and reinstated her case. The Court strongly rejected the argument that Crawford was not protected because she had not herself complained of harassment and started the investigation, stating

nothing in the statute requires a freakish rule protecting an employee who reports discrimination on her own initiative but not one who reports the same discrimination in the same words when her boss asks her a question.

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com

Fair Pay Law For Working Women Passes Senate

Working women, fairness and equity all won a victory Thursday, January 22, when the U.S. Senate passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act by a vote of 61-36. This law will restore the ability of women who are unfairly and wrongly underpaid because of gender discrimination to recover the fair pay they have earned.  The United States Supreme Court took that ability away last year in a 5-4 decision that disregarded and ignored both the overwhelming consensus of the intermediate federal appeals courts and a common sense appreciation for the regular workplace. Efforts to reverse that erroneous decision were stymied last summer by Republican-led filibusters in the Senate.   

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act simply restores what every woman working in America had before the Supreme Court’s decision: a realistic opportunity to recover in court the earnings and benefits that they deserve based on their performance and qualifications but have been denied because of their gender. President Obama has spoken often in favor of the bill and it may possibly be the first bill that he signs into law.     

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com

Breach of Fiduciary Duty Suit Arising From Medical Insurance Overcharges Settled

Hospital employees, who were charged higher fees by a group health plan it owned than it charged employees of other client companies, have settled a lawsuit alleging that the overcharges violated the employer's fiduciary duties under ERISA reports the Winston-Salem Journal, "Baptist Hospital Settles Suit On Health Plan."

The lawsuit claims that the hospital, North Carolina Baptist Hospital (NCBH) charged its employees higher fees for services rendered at the hospital through a group health plan, MedCost, which was owned by the hospital, than those charged to employees of other corporate clients. The hospital employees also had higher co-pays and lower discounts.  The report is:

"NCBH selected its subsidiary, MedCost, as the network provider for the plan knowing that MedCost would include NCBH in its provider network at substantially inflated reimbursement rates," according to the lawsuit. "The selection was made not on the basis of quality or cost from a fiduciary standpoint, but rather was based on NCBH's own economic interests."

The settlement will allow employees to recover damages for their overpayments going back to 2002 and will limit their charges in the future.  

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com