Equal pay for equal work
The Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. 206(d), mandates equal pay for "equal work".
But what does "equal work" mean? A ruling by the Second Circuit focuses on the "content" of the "work" and rejects titles and labels as the basis for comparing male and female workers.
"Actual
The Second Circuit has upheld rules that aim to ease the process for vendors of video content to complain to the Federal Communications Commission about bias by Comcast, Time Warner, and other cable giants in favor of their own video content. Time Warner Cable Inc. v. Federal Communications Comm'n, No. 11-4138(L) (2d Cir. Sept.
Under Title VII, an employer’s liability for [racial] harassment [at work] may depend on the status of the harasser. If the harassing employee is the victim’s co-worker, the employer is liable only if it was negligent in controlling working conditions. In cases in which the harasser is a "supervisor," however, different rules apply. If the
Did you really not know that selling out your clients could get you in trouble?
A law firm that agreed to take many millions — up to $7.5 millions — from a defendant in return for getting plaintiff-clients to settle cheap seems not to have thought that far ahead.
The firm hired on to represent
California law favors class actions. So much so that Golden State courts have struck down class-action bans that show up in consumer contracts whether they apply to lawsuits, Discover Bank v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, 113 P.2d 1100 (Cal. 2005), or arbitration cases, America Online v. Superior Court, 108 Cal. Rptr. 2d 699
An 11-judge en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit today upheld certification of a sex discrimination case against Walmart. Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. 04-16688 (9th Cir. Apr. 26, 2010).
Chief Judge Kozinski and Circuit Judge Ikuta filed dissents.
The ABA Journal this month includes a piece on the "enormous differences" in how federal judges "interpret the facts" of cases involving claims of bias on grounds of race or gender.
What accounts for the juridical variability?
The race or sex of the judge.
The ABA Journal item links to a couple of studies.