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Employees of county-funded private businesses whose positions are cut by the county in retaliation for exercising their freedom of speech have no retaliatory discharge claim against the county.  In Kensington Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. v. Montgomery County, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a Maryland federal court’s dismissal of retaliatory discharge claims brought by former employees of a private company that provided fire, rescue, and emergency services.  The plaintiffs claimed that the county cut funding for their positions…

Employers stung by a claim or lawsuit by an employee – especially a baseless one by a particularly litigious employee —may want to minimize potential future liability by checking the litigation records of their potential new hires.  But, is this legal?  When it comes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), which regulates issues such as minimum wage and overtime, the answer is “yes,” according to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth

Any manager, supervisor, or officer responsible for the hiring or firing of 50 or more employees may be liable in his or her individual capacity (this means personal liability) for violations of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).  A federal court in Virginia ruled that Francis O’Leary, the Arlington County Treasurer, could be sued in his individual capacity for discharging Patricia Weth after she took FMLA leave for a cancer-related surgery.  The case is Weth v.

In Brainware, Inc. v. Mahan, 1:11cv470 (LMB/TCB) (E.D. Va., Aug. 24, 2011), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied an employee’s motion to dismiss claims brought against him by his former employer based upon his non-compete and post-employment conduct.  In that case, Brainware, the former employer, marketed and sold software applications in the Intelligent Data Capture and Recognition market, which involves IT products used in automating billing and product delivery. The defendant,

Businesses whose employees are paid in tips know that the minimum wage law doesn’t apply to them.  The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to pay employees a statutory minimum hourly wage.  For each hour an employee works in excess of 40 hours in a given week, employers must pay an overtime wage that is at least one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate. Under limited circumstances, however, an employer may pay a