Minimum wage requirement applies to workweek as a whole. District Court properly concluded employer complied with federal minimum wage requirement by paying minimum wage for workweek as a whole. Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage for some hours during a workweek, so long as they pay more than...
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Hawaii Employment Law Decisions November 5, 2017 to November 11, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris and Rachel K.H. Miyashiro
U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit Identification of Glassdoor.com reviewers. District Court properly denied Glassdoor, Inc.’s, motion to quash grand jury subpoena requiring identification of eight users who posted anonymous reviews on Glassdoor.com about a company being investigated for fraud, waste and abuse of federal funds. The reviews supported an inference the reviewers observed...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Decisions October 29, 2017 to November 4, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit District Court properly concluded company must pay returning service member higher collective bargaining signing bonus based on larger plane he would have been flying if he had not departed for military service. Huhmann v. Fed. Express Corp., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21955 (9th Cir. Nov. 2, 2017). NLRB...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Decisions October 22, 2017 to October 28, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit If the District Court determines employee did not obtain a more favorable judgment in his FLSA class action, the court must award the employer post-offer costs. A less favorable final judgment is not an ultimate bar to attorney fees under the FLSA. It is one factor a court...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Decisions October 15, 2017 to October 21, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly granted summary judgment against age discrimination claim. When substitute teacher applies for permanent teaching position, ‘failure to hire’ standard applies. Substitute failed to make out her prima facie case by showing a younger person with similar qualifications received the position. The employer hired teachers with advanced...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Cases October 8, 2017 to October 14, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals TSA did not err in disqualifying individual from serving as flight crew based on his conviction for conspiring to launder money. TSA reasonably concluded as a crewmember had unescorted access to secure areas of planes and airports, he had to be especially trustworthy; his guilty plea showed that for...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Cases October 1, 2017 to October 7, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court improperly granted summary judgment against ADA claim. Employer failed to present evidence it engaged with employee to "discover the precise limitations and the types of accommodations which would be most effective" given her injury, and did not show assigning employee to light duty work, as it had...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Cases September 24, 2017 to September 30, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly granted summary judgment against discrimination claim. Former employee failed to raise a triable issue of fact whether he was performing according to employer’s legitimate expectations. Employee committed three "serious offenses" under the collective bargaining agreement in a relatively short time span—any one of which could have...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Cases September 17, 2017 to September 23, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii District Court dismissed EEOC’s sexual harassment, constructive discharge and retaliation claims on behalf five former male employees, with leave to amend. Events associated with first two former employees’ claims occurred more than 300 days before charging party filed his charge with the EEOC. The first employee suffered no adverse...
Read MoreHawaii Employment Law Cases September 10, 2017 to September 16, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Substantial evidence supported finding employer violated 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (3) by firing an employee for his union activity. Deviations from internal practice, disparate treatment and after the fact justification showed its reasons were pretextual. Employer could not retroactively strip employee of NLRA protection by making him a...
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