Part One of this article discussed releases and covenants not to sue, the issues raised by the OWBPA (Older Workers Benefits Protection Act) and EEOC Regulations, and Thomforde v. International Business Machines, 406 F.3d 500 (8th Cir. 2005). The conclusion herein discusses the Syverson case and considerations for employers in preparing releases. Syverson v. International Business Machines, 461 F.3d 1147 (9th Cir. 2006).
It is well settled that the company may not transfer the employee against her wishes to another job or force her to take a leave of absence. This rule was stated clearly by the Supreme Court in International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America v. Johnson Controls, Inc. So what to do?
The majority of employers know that employment discrimination based on gender is illegal. Many employers, however, are unaware that discrimination based on stereotypical views of women as 'mothers' and men as 'fathers' may also be actionable. Although caregivers are not a protected class under federal anti-discrimination statutes, courts are recognizing with increased frequency that inappropriate considerations and decisions about 'caregivers' might constitute unlawful treatment under various federal laws.
A potentially dangerous situation employers struggle to understand arises when an employer neither knows nor recognizes an employee's mental disability, and has cause to terminate that employee, but, prior to termination, discovers the disability. This article discusses the pitfalls and solutions.
Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
Who's doing what; who's going where.
While e-discovery may be Greek to many, it is those documents written in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian that cause much of the trouble for companies ' bricks-and-mortar and 'e' alike ' when documents must be collected, reviewed, redacted and presented.
It's a brand new year ' and, with a little luck and some persistence, maybe you made the most of the holiday season's networking opportunities and now you're poised to follow up with a flood of new contacts. But if you felt like your holiday season was hectic and didn't yield much client-development success, not to worry. Consider making it your New Year's resolution to make the most of events you attend in 2008.
Despite the Internet's global reach, it is the propensity of American citizens and U.S. residents to engage in e-commerce ' and of American courts and governmental agencies to accept, resolve and publish the decisions in those cases ' that makes it fair to say that American law dominates e-commerce.
When the same entertainment network that gave us Family Guy and American Idol (and soon, The Wall Street Journal) does a multi-million dollar buyout of a self-proclaimed 'spiritual Web site,' www.beliefnet.com, no one can deny that the selling of religion online has become big business. Although the Bible and the Pope may have both condemned mixing commerce and worship, today the temple appears to have firmly established itself in digital form in the e-commerce marketplace, rather than the marketplace having been set up ' and pitched out of ' the temple.
