United States: ERISA’s "Overlapping Fields Of Fire" Preempt Wisconsin’s Family And Medical Leave Act

Wisconsin’s Family and Medical Leave Act (“WFMLA”), requires that employers allow employees six weeks of unpaid leave following “[t]he birth of an employee’s natural child,” and that employers allow an employee to substitute “paid or unpaid leave of any other type provided by the employer” for the unpaid leave provided by the law. However, in a recent decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (covering Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee) […]

By | October 8th, 2014 ||

United States: Ban The Ban-The-Box? Proposed Law May Clarify Background Check Dilemma In Regulated Industries

On the heels of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) increased scrutiny regarding criminal history questions during the hiring process and the wave of new state ban-the-box laws, Congress has proposed legislation that actually protects certain employers when they seek to comply with the laws that regulate their industries. The “Certainty in Enforcement Act of 2014” would prevent the EEOC, state agencies and plaintiffs’ attorneys from claiming that certain employers are engaged in an […]

By | October 8th, 2014 ||

Canada: Ontario Human Rights Tribunal Finds Paying Disabled Employee $1.25 An Hour Is Discrimination

In Garrie v Janus Joan Inc, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “Tribunal”) ordered Janus Joan Inc. (the “Company”) to pay over $186,000 to Terri-Lynn Garrie, (the “Applicant”) a developmentally disabled woman who was paid $1.25 an hour for years before her employment was terminated by the Company.

In the late 1990’s, the Company employed the Applicant, and other individuals with developmental disabilities, as general labourers and paid them $1.00 per hour. After a […]

By | October 8th, 2014 ||