The VLW Blog

Can a change-up on a job description help an employer prove a job was no longer open after it fired the person who had the job and she filed a Title VII case? A court may take on that question now that a public affairs officer at a federal agency gets a chance to try [...]

[Read more →]

A federal judge cited that ‘70s anthem last week when he decided a mine worker who hadn’t toked up since high school should get a chance to return to work. Employer Dickenson-Russell Coal Company had a strict “zero tolerance” drug policy that called for random screening and disciplinary sanctions ranging up to termination. After the [...]

[Read more →]

An employee for a pest-control company who went to work for a competitor need not worry about that noncompete he signed some time ago. Today a divided Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed dismissal of the company’s suit to enforce the noncompete. The take-away tip for lawyers drafting noncompetes: Make sure to match the activities you [...]

[Read more →]

A Roanoke federal court says an IT specialist who fell asleep on the job can sue for disability discrimination on a claim his employer did not accommodate his insomnia and sleep apnea. U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson refused to dismiss John Leschinskey’s complaint against Radford University, filed after Radford fired the 39-year-old voice engineer [...]

[Read more →]

A nursing assistant banned from wearing the modest garb prescribed by her Church of the Brethren faith cannot sue the Catholic nursing care facility that fired her for Title VII religious discrimination, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Villa St. Catherine Inc., in Emmitsburg, Md., asked geriatric nursing assistant Lori Kennedy to [...]

[Read more →]

Employers trying to define social media policies for employees may want to look at a report that outlines recent government decisions about employee rights to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media. The National Labor Relations Board’s Office of the General Counsel has released a 24-page summary of cases involving the legality of employers’ social [...]

[Read more →]

A restaurant chain’s settlement of servers’ overtime-pay claims will not be sealed, an Alexandria U.S. District Court said earlier this month. The employer urged confidentiality and the employees acquiesced, according to the court’s opinion in Miles v. Ruby Tuesday Inc., but the parties’ claim that the deal was off if it became public failed to [...]

[Read more →]

A Norfolk U.S. District Court has refused to seal an overtime-pay settlement even though the employer argues disclosure of the settlement could prompt other claimants to overvalue their individual cases. The ruling comes in Baker v. Dolgencorp Inc., Virginia’s newest case arising from an earlier collective suit that pitted 2,400 employees against Dollar General Store [...]

[Read more →]

A full-time telecommuter was not acting within the scope of his employment when he drove from his home office to a government office to meet with colleagues. The telecommuter was on his own time when he had a traffic accident on his way to his employer’s office, an Alexandria federal judge said. Virginia law on [...]

[Read more →]

A new case from Hanover County demonstrates once again what happens when companies write noncompete agreements that overreach. They get tossed out the door. In Specialty Marketing Inc. v. Lawrence (VLW 010-8-061), the employee signed a noncompete as part of a stock ownership deal. The company is a wholesaler of consumer home and auto electronics. [...]

[Read more →]