Atlanta Employment Attorneys Blog

U.S. Supreme Court Sides with a Business Owner Who Sought to Deny Service to Same-Sex Couples: What the Ruling Means for LGBTQ+ Georgians Going Forward

June 30, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A groundbreaking new ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court has triggered substantial concern among members of the LGBTQ+ community. The court’s 6-3 decision says, for the first time, that the First Amendment’s right to free speech allows some business owners to refuse to serve some customers if taking those jobs would conflict with the owner’s beliefs. Despite this unfavorable ruling, LGBTQ+ people still have legal protections, including those protections guaranteed locally here in Atlanta and some surrounding cities. If a public accommodation rejected you because of your sexual orientation or gender identity, you may still have legal recourse, so it’s worth your while to discuss your situation with an experienced Atlanta sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination lawyer.

The case at issue involved a Colorado website designer who wanted to create wedding websites but desired to provide that service only to heterosexual couples as a result of her religious beliefs related to marriage.

This would have constituted illegal discrimination under the State of Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. That law says business owners may not “publish, circulate, issue, display, post, or mail any… advertisement that indicates that… an individual’s patronage or presence at a place of public accommodation is unwelcome, objectionable, unacceptable, or undesirable because of… sexual orientation, gender identity, [or] gender expression.”

Book Bans in Schools and How They Can Violate the First Amendment’s Right of Free Speech

June 23, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Issues related to the contents of school libraries and the reading materials in school curricula have been in the news a lot lately. School authorities have considerable discretion in the books they include and which ones they exclude, but that power is not unlimited. It’s possible for school authorities’ choices to cross constitutional limits and represent violations of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. Free speech cases, like many types of civil cases, can be complex matters requiring detailed knowledge of the law, which is why retaining a knowledgeable Atlanta First Amendment lawyer in your matter is crucial.

One of the most controversial examples occurred to our north in rural Tennessee, where a county school board voted unanimously to remove the book “Maus” by Art Seligman. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book followed the author’s parents through their time in the Auschwitz internment camp. The school board objected to the book’s depictions of suicide, the use of swear words, and an image of nudity as age-inappropriate for eighth-graders.

In Pensacola, Florida, a publisher and some parents used civil litigation to fight back against these sorts of bans. Penguin Random House, several parents, and a free speech nonprofit sued the Escambia County Schools for violating the First Amendment. The lawsuit alleged that school authorities disproportionately used their powers to target works that contained LGBTQ+ issues or dealt with race discrimination.

How Employer Health Plans’ Exclusion of Gender-Affirming Care May Constitute Illegal Employment Discrimination

June 16, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Transgender people face discrimination in many settings, and that includes the workplace. One way is when their employers provide insurance coverage to employees in a discriminatory manner. If your employer’s insurance plan discriminates against your gender-affirming care, that potentially can represent a violation of federal law and you should talk to an Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer about your situation.

Currently, several state government workers are pursuing a discrimination case exactly like this.

M.R., one of the employees, is a staff accountant at the Department of Audits and Accounts and a trans man. The accountant’s doctor recommended certain surgical procedures. The Georgia State Health Benefit Plan denied coverage, so the accountant sued.

The Respect for Marriage Act and the State of Marriage Equality in Georgia and Elsewhere in 2023

June 9, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Eight years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges establishing marriage equality across the U.S. Even though marriage equality is the law of the land, gay and lesbian people still encounter many hurdles. If you’ve encountered illegal discrimination because of sexual orientation or your same-sex marriage, then you should contact an experienced Atlanta discrimination lawyer to help protect your rights.

A few months ago, the U.S. Congress last year took an important step in protecting gay and lesbian couples. The action occurred in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that, on its face, had nothing to do with marriage equality.

In June 2022, the court issued a ruling in the abortion case of Dobbs v. Whole Women’s Health. The court’s majority opinion addressed abortion rights, but Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion theorized that the notion of “substantive due process” is “demonstrably erroneous.” (Substantive due process is the legal concept underpinning many modern rights cases like Griswold v. Connecticut (contraception,) Lawrence v. Texas (same-sex intimate relations,)… and Obergefell.)

When a Reduction of a Worker’s ‘Regular Rate’ of Pay Crosses from a Permissible Modification to an Illegal Dodge of the Requirements Imposed by the FLSA

May 31, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Employers have several tools at their disposal to cut costs, including the expenses that go with paying their workers. The law gives employers considerable latitude in modifying workers’ pay if those workers have begun putting in longer hours but, as any knowledgeable Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer can tell you, when an employer cuts a worker’s regular rate of pay in an artificial way that’s designed to get around complying with the overtime rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act, that a violation of the law.

One potential way an employer can run afoul of the statute is to create two different “regular” rates of pay, with the goal of using the lesser of the two as the basis for calculating overtime pay, thereby artificially depressing the amount of overtime compensation the workers would receive.

That’s what one security guard alleged in his FLSA lawsuit against his employer. When the guard started his employment, the employer paid him $13 per hour and the guard worked 40-hour weeks.

The U.S. Labor Department Issues New Guidance on the Rights of Breastfeeding Workers and the Responsibilities Their Employers Have Toward Them

May 24, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A few months ago, this blog looked at the impact of the Fair Labor Standards Act on remote workers, including new moms who are breastfeeding or expressing milk during the workday. Today, we’re going to look at a related but separate group: pumping moms working at the employer’s worksite. Whether an employee is or is not remote, she has certain rights under federal law. So, if you’re an employer seeking to ensure compliance or you’re a worker who has been mistreated regarding your pumping, it is well worth your while to contact an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer to get answers to your questions.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued a field assistance bulletin on this topic. Field assistance bulletins don’t carry the force of law, but the courts may rely on them as a persuasive (but not precedential) authority.

That May 2023 bulletin followed in the wake of President Biden’s signing into law the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act) in late December 2022.

The Federal Court Procedure for Terminating a FLSA Case Partially Resolved Via Settlement

May 18, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Currently, the law allows restaurant employers to pay employees a base rate below the mandatory minimum wage as long as those workers ultimately end up receiving total compensation that works out to be more than the minimum hourly requirement (which, here in Georgia, is $7.25.) If you find it necessary to pursue this kind of minimum wage lawsuit (or defend against one,) it’s important to recognize the many federal rules of procedure that may play a role in your case. Ensuring that the rules of procedure do not trip up your case (or your defense as an employer) is one area where a skilled Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can be invaluable.

Here’s a recent example from federal court minimum wage action to illustrate what we mean.

The plaintiffs were a group of servers at a high-end restaurant. Their employer charged customers a preset gratuity that it automatically added to diners’ bills and then split those “service charges” among the servers. In addition, the servers also received a base pay of $5.65 per hour.

When Ageist Insults Can Factor into a Federal Age Discrimination Case in Georgia

May 11, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

The emergence of memes involving the derisive phrase “OK boomer” is a reminder that age-based bias is as pervasive as ever (if not more so) across America and here in Georgia. While some age-biased insults may be merely rude or in poor taste, other times, they represent something very profoundly damaging and harmful. When this kind of injurious conduct occurs in the workplace, it may represent an instance of illegal age discrimination. Whether you are an employer or an older employee, if you think you’re dealing with age discrimination issues, contact an experienced Atlanta age discrimination lawyer to find out what your next steps should be.

“OK boomer” may be the most on-trend age-related barb, but it is far from the only one. Recently, one Georgia worker reached a successful settlement of her Age Discrimination in Employment Act case where those sorts of issues played a role.

The employee, L.C., was an Atlanta-area woman who worked for a major information services company in a sales representative role. According to the employee’s ADEA lawsuit filed here in the Northern District of Georgia last June, L.C.’s supervisor called her names like “old dinosaur” and also opined that she was so old that she could not figure out newer technologies.

The Importance of Thorough — and Factually Consistent — Documentation When it Comes Time to Litigate a Discrimination Case

April 28, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

TV and theatrical depictions of lawyers and litigation often take a great degree of “artistic license.” (Scenes inside a courtroom room rarely look like what happens on a Law and Order show.) One thing shows and movies get right, though, is a good attorney’s ability to spot weaknesses in the other side’s position. On the screen, the lawyer may catch the person in a lie outright. In the real world, it more often relates to a skilled Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer’s ability to spot inconsistencies and expose them to undermine the other side’s credibility.

To avoid falling victim to this pitfall — whether you’re an employee alleging discrimination or an employer defending against such a charge — it is vital to ensure that you’ve maintained proper and complete documentation of the events that preceded the litigation and make sure that they consistently “sing from the same sheet of music,” so to speak. As an employer, that includes documenting all the steps you took before firing an employee, such as performance improvement plans and disciplinary actions.

For example, take the race discrimination case of an engineering and consulting firm and one of its project coordinators who worked in North Georgia. The coordinator, a Black woman, worked in Kennesaw for five years. During that time, she said she endured racial discrimination on multiple occasions.

A Federal Court in Georgia Denies the Salvation Army’s Dismissal Motion in a Minimum Wage Dispute Involving ‘Rehabilitation Program’ Participants Who Worked in Its Thrift Stores

April 21, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When it comes to determining compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime compensation requirements, it’s essential to understand that not all workers receive pay 100% in the form of cash. Some may receive compensation through housing, meals, or other non-cash forms. Even if you’re receiving in-kind or non-monetary compensation, it’s still possible for your employer to violate minimum wage laws, as a group of thrift store workers alleged in a recent federal action here in Georgia. If you believe you’ve encountered that kind of illegal treatment, don’t wait to take action. Get in touch with a knowledgeable Atlanta minimum wage lawyer to find out what next steps you should take.

Those thrift store workers worked at the Salvation Army’s stores in several southern states. According to all of the workers, the Salvation Army ran “residential adult rehabilitation centers and adult rehabilitation programs,” and used those rehab participants to staff its thrift stores.

Salvation Army thrift stores are big business, bringing in close to $600 million in revenue in 2019 alone. Here in the United States, the Salvation Army is separately incorporated in each of four regions. The federal case here in Atlanta is one of three. Thrift store workers recently achieved similar successes in overcoming the Salvation Army’s dismissal efforts in federal lawsuits in Chicago and New York City.