Corporate, Litigation, and Labor & Employment Lawyers

Honolulu and Hilo, HI

Hawaii Employment Law Decisions from December 14, 2014 to December 31, 2014 – Jeffrey S. Harris

District court had jurisdiction over putative class action because the waiting time penalties sought  alone exceeded the $5 million threshold for removal.  Jones v. Bath & Body Works, LLC, 2014 U.S. App. 24508 (9th Cir. Dec. 29, 2015).

Court issued detailed findings and conclusions regarding pattern and practice of discrimination, harassment and retaliation against Thai workers by Global Horizons, Inc. and Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. and awarded damages and injunctive relief against those companies.  EEOC v. Global Horizons, 2014 U.S. Dis. LEXIS 175851 (D. Haw. Dec. 19, 2014).

Hotel violated HRS § 481B-4 by neither distributing the entire food and beverage service charge to its employers as tip income nor disclosing the amount it retained as the management share and then used to pay the employees' wages.  Kawakami v. Kahala Hotel Investors, LLC, 341 P.3d 558 (Hawaii Dec. 22, 2014).

Note: We analyze cases to learn rules the courts will follow or disappoint us if they don't. Rules that the courts follow allow us to behave and provide explanations that they accept. But competent advocates may limit the rules to the facts of the case where they are discussed, or expand rules by showing that differences in other cases are irrelevant.