United States: NLRB Says On-Line Planning For Insubordination Is Not Protected Concerted Activity

In Richmond District Neighborhood Center, Case 20-CA-091748 (Oct. 28, 2014), the Board upheld an Administrative Law Judge’s ruling that a conversation between two employees, who were involved with student programming at the neighborhood center, was not protected under the NLRA. During the course of their Facebook exchange, which included obscenity-laced statements regarding how they would “raise hell” at the center, the employees lost protection under the NLRA because of their threats of insubordination.

The […]

By | November 6th, 2014 ||

United States: Study: Does The Existence Of Whistleblowers In Enforcement Actions Mean Greater Penalties?

According to an academic study published on October 6, 2014 by Andrew C. Hall, Gerald S. Martin, Nathan Y. Sharp, and Jaron H. Wilde, the presence of whistleblowers may have a meaningful impact on the outcomes of enforcement actions brought by the SEC and DOJ. The study involved an analysis of the effect of whistleblowers on enforcement actions for alleged financial misrepresentation, as measured by regulatory penalties (and criminal prison sentences). The […]

By | November 6th, 2014 ||

United States: Department Of The Army Found To Have Discriminated Against Transgender Employee

We recently reported on President Obama’s amendment to Executive Order 11246 banning discrimination based on LGBT status. Now the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has found that the Department of the Army discriminated against a transgender civilian employee in violation of a separate federal law, and strongly suggested that such discrimination is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII.

The civilian employee had transitioned from a man to a woman beginning in 2010, changing […]

By | November 5th, 2014 ||