Saturday, February 13, 2016
- Sixth Circuit: The court upheld $307,000 jury verdict on male employee’s Title VII sexual harassment claim, rejecting employer’s argument that coworker’s conduct was merely “horseplay” where three instances involved a slap on the rear, a painful grab on the rear, and a grab by the hips and “hunching,” i.e., briefly simulating sex; employee showed that the harassment was “based on sex” where alleged harasser had mooned other men at work and touched at least seven male colleagues, even though there was no evidence that he did not treat women similarly; and employer was liable because it did not separate the two men, suspend coworker pending an investigation, or initiate its investigation for 10 days after harassment was reported
- EEOC: 2015 enforcement statistics reflect the following breakdown of charges: retaliation 44.5%, race 34.7%, disability 30.2%, sex 29.5%, age 22.5%, national origin 10.6%, religion 3.9%, color 3.2%, Equal Pay Act 1.1%, Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act 0.3%
- First Circuit: The court reversed summary judgment for officers on § 1983 claim arising out of decedent’s death while being transported to police station and then to jail cell because, “regardless of whether the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment standard applied, a reasonable officer would have known that it was unconstitutional to apply force in the way that the officers here appear to have done in transporting and incarcerating an arrestee, where the arrestee was already physically restrained and did not pose a great physical threat to the officers”
- First Circuit: The court affirmed summary judgment for employer on unpaid overtime claim by store manager who was paid a guaranteed weekly salary plus variable commission, finding employer correctly calculated overtime by (1) adding together both (a) the guaranteed salary for the week and (b) the commissions earned that week; (2) dividing the total wages by the number of hours the employee logged for that week; and (3) paying an additional 50% of the resulting per hour rate for any hour worked in excess of forty hours that week
- Law Court: The court affirmed summary judgment for insurer on claim by decedent’s estate where “other-owned-vehicle exclusion” in underinsured motorist policy limited recovery to vehicles listed on declarations page, and motorcycle decedent was driving at the time of his death was not listed on the declarations page
- MHRC: March 14 Commission Meeting Agenda and Consent Agenda posted
