Tampa Bay Personal Injury Lawyer - Employment Law

Scrap Metal Fire Burns in Port of Tampa

Courtney Mills — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:26:15 GMT

A huge scrap metal fire at a metal recycling plant broke out early this morning, sending reams of smoke billowing over an entire portion of southern Hillsborough County. Firefighters attempted to out the scrap metal fire at Trademark Metal Recycling with water, to no avail. Large clouds of smoke from the fire could be seen from miles away.

According to media reports, the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission had been monitoring the air quality in the region, and it had diminished substantially in Apollo Beach by mid-day.

Although the air pollution from the metal recycling plant is not dangerous, those with asthma and other allergies in the Apollo Beach area should be careful and watch out for breathing problems caused by the fire. No injuries have been reported as yet.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Worksite Injuries and Workers Compensation.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Courtney Mills

Overtime Wages Not Paid By Corporation

Bob Carroll — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:05:04 GMT

The nonpayment of overtime wages of sales reps - Act Two following the nonpayment of overtime wages of installation workers. Does anyone see a pattern at IBM? Could the maintenance workers file the next overtime lawsuit?

IBM Hit With Overtime Suit

IBM Corp. has been hit with another proposed class action lawsuit that accuses the computer giant of intentionally misclassifying its sales representatives to exempt them from overtime wages.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 6 in Massachusetts District Court, comes less than two months after IBM agreed to pay $65 million to settle a similar class action lawsuit filed by installation workers...

In Florida, the misclassification of employees continues to be the basis for employee claims for unpaid overtime wages. The bottom line: you are not necessarily exempt from receiving overtime pay simply because the boss says you are.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Discrimination Continues In The Workplace

Bob Carroll — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 11:12:39 GMT

Employment discrimination charges increased in 2006. Is it because more victims are saying "I'm not going to take it anymore"? Or, more employers are ignoring the law? Or, the EEOC is becoming more aggressive? No matter the cause, it is obvious discrimination in the workplace continues in America. And, Florida is not an island of equality in a sea of discrimination.

EEOC Discrimination Charges Increase In 2006

Discrimination charges brought against private employers by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission showed an increase last year for the first time since 2002, according to data released by the EEOC Thursday.
The EEOC said it filed 75,768 individual charge filings in 2006, up from 75,428 a year before. Additionally, almost all categories of filings saw an increase last year, except for age and equal pay charges.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Wage And Hour Cases Are Not Mysterious

Bob Carroll — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 10:29:44 GMT

Solved mystery of the week.

Wage-And-Hour Class Actions Continue To Grow

Many employment defense attorneys agree that wage-and-hour cases have taken up more and more of their time in recent years. Now, thanks to a report published by Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Monday, there is hard evidence to back up this speculation.

I do not have to speculate about an increase in wage-and-hour cases. It is real, and it is caused by an increasing effort on the part of employers to deprive more and more employees of the pay mandated by the law. Not a complicated explanation - violation of the law.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

A Lewd Workplace Costs Magazine $15.5 Million

Bob Carroll — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:56:11 GMT

You may work for a hip-hop music magazine, but you can still complain about a lewd work environment.

Jury Slaps Rap Mag With $15.5M Verdict

Music magazine The Source and two former co-owners have been hit with a $15.5 million verdict after a federal jury in Manhattan found that former Source editor and plaintiff Kimberly Osorio was fired in retaliation for complaining about the lewd work environment at the so-called bible of hip-hop.
The jury also held that Osorio had been defamed, but found in favor of the defendants on sexual harassment and discriminatory discharge claims.

I am not sure how many music magazines are published from Florida. In Pinellas County I suspect there may only be the Big Band Review or the Tommy Dorsey Downbeat. However, no employee needs to endure lewdness in the workplace.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Greyhound Bitten By Sharks In Florida...Seeking Overtime Pay

Bob Carroll — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 06:19:13 GMT

The laws concerning wages and hours of employment can sometimes create interesting lawsuit captions. This particular lawsuit is actually Sharks vs. Greyhound. Honest.

Greyhound Employee Demands Overtime, Lunch Pay

A former ticket agent has filed a wage lawsuit against Greyhound Lines Inc., accusing the passenger transportation company of failing to pay overtime and docking her pay for lunches she never took.
The plaintiff, Zandres Sharks, works at Greyhound's Orange County, Florida, facility, where she said she's not the only employee who is missing wages. She filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and others similarly situated.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

Even Newspapers Fail To Pay Overtime

Bob Carroll — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 07:19:04 GMT

Newspapers get the word out. They keep us informed. They alert us to important events. They serve as a watchdog when our legal rights are violated.

How could a newspaper fail to pay its reporters overtime required by law? Surely, the publisher and managing supervisors of a paper would have read many reports of other employers who did not comply with the law. Yet, here is the proof that a newspaper may have been shortchanging its reporter/employees.

Newspaper Faces Wage-Hour Class Action

A former reporter at the Santa Barbara News-Press has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against her old employer, alleging that the newspaper failed to pay overtime to those working more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

Nobody can say how this particular lawsuit will play out. But, it is a reminder that employers in every type of business have an understandable desire to avoid overtime pay. And, employees have a legal right to receive overtime pay unless they are in a particular classification of employee. Often, the employer mis-classifies or over-classifies jobs to improve bottom line profitability.

In Florida as well as in California the story repeats itself. And, it even gets reported in the newspapers who are sued for failing to pay overtime.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

The "Paper Trail" Of A Discrimination Coverup

Bob Carroll — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:38:05 GMT

You can cover your tracks in the woods but not when you plan to fire a high level corporate executive.

Judge: Paper Trail Suspicious In Motorola Sex Bias Suit

Portfolio Media, New York (October 12, 2006)--A sex discrimination suit against Motorola Inc. took a peculiar twist on Tuesday, when a federal judge wrote in his ruling that top executives at the cell phone company may have constructed a "paper trail" to justify the firing of a high-ranking female executive.
U.S. District Judge David Coar wrote in his opinion that he had found "circumstantial evidence that there was a concerted effort to 'cover one's tracks'" in Motorola's reasoning for firing its chief procurement officer.

I'm betting the "paper trail" included some email messages or files.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

College Whines Over Sexual-Harassment Verdict

Bob Carroll — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:21:00 GMT

The Chronicle Of Higher Education reports on the efforts of a community college to shame a jury for daring to award compensatory and punitive damages against it for its failure to protect an employee from the sexual advances of a campus police officer.

The story does not detail the misconduct of the community college which supported the jury's verdict. I assume the college has courses on sexual-harassment, that it understands an employer can be held liable for its failure to put a stop to it, that the jury found the college was very deficient in this regard and that a judge will review the propriety of the jury's verdict. I also assume there will be new course materials in the works as well as some retraining of supervisory employees.

Officials at the St. Louis Community College system say that members of a jury who found the institution liable for $850,000 in a sexual-harassment case are punishing the community by forcing local authorities to increase taxes, by making the system cut programs or raise tuition, or by bringing about all three.
the court testimony of Henry D. Shannon, the system's chancellor, who warned the jury that substantial damages could result in reduced services and tax and tuition increases, according to the Post-Dispatch.
The jury award stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Caren Sharpe, who works as secretary to the police chief at the system's Meramec campus. She sued the college because she believed her bosses had failed to protect her from the sexual advances of a campus police officer, according to the news report. A jury found in her favor on Friday and awarded her $400,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and $450,000 in punitive damages.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll

La-Z-Boy Accused Of Violating Rights Under Family And Medical Leave Act

Bob Carroll — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 01:18:07 GMT

A woman filed a $1 million plus lawsuit against La-z-Boy, Inc., last week in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Lori Ann Adams claims La-Z-Boy officials violated her rights under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act by firing her on Sept. 2, 2004. She says she suffered more than $300,000 in actual damages for lost wages, benefits, "diminished future earning capacity, lost career and promotion opportunities, job search expenses, and general non-monetary damages in the form of severe emotional and mental distress and anguish, pain and suffering, humiliation, inconvenience, embarrassment, loss of sleep, decreased self-esteem, anxiety and depression, loss of enjoyment of life."
Ms. Adams is also asking for $1 million in punitive damages.
Ms. Adams, who had been working for La-Z-Boy since 2000 was approved for a Family and Medical Leave Act leave on Aug. 25, 2004, after she suffered an anxiety attack following "an incident at work," according to the lawsuit, which indicated she has a history of "chronic depression and anxiety attacks."
When she returned, the petition said, she was fired "for false and pretextual reasons, allegedly for refusing to perform work she was instructed to do and for falsifying the reason she needed to leave."

Basically, Ms. Adams was accused of being a La-Z-Gal.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Bob Carroll