Employment Law Report

By Kim Koratsky

On July 16, 2009, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Jacqueline Berrien to be the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  Berrien, currently associate director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, is a graduate of Harvard Law School.  Prior to the position with the NAACP, which she ...

By Kim Koratsky

The Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper, The Commercial-Appeal reports that FedEx has added gender identity as an additional protected class covered by its corporate nondiscrimination policy.  FedEx already included sexual orientation in its workplace non-discrimination policy, but it has now expanded the language. 

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By Kristie Alfred Daugherty

On June 18, 2009, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., No. 08-441.  The case involved the determination of whether a “mixed motive” analysis is available in a suit brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).  In a 5-4 decision, the ...

By Edwin Hopson

It was reported on July 17, 2009, by the New York Times that several key Democratic moderate Senators are working on a revised Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) bill so as to obtain the necessary 60 votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster.  The original legislation to amend the National Labor Relations Act’s union representation ...

By Ed Hopson and George Miller

On July 9, 2009, the White House announced that it was sending the U.S. Senate the nominations of Craig Becker, Mark Gaston Pearce, and Brian Hayes to be members of the National Labor Relations Board. If the Senate confirms these nominees, the NLRB will have a full complement of five members for the first time since ...