Atlanta Employment Attorneys Blog

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.

Properly Pleading a Case of FMLA Interference or Retaliation in Georgia

April 14, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When your employer illegally interferes with your rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or retaliates against you for invoking those rights, you may be entitled to seek a civil judgment and recover compensation based on those violations. Winning an FMLA interference claim or FMLA retaliation claim requires a lot of things, including in-depth knowledge of the law, proper awareness of (and compliance with) all the rules of procedure, and excellent skill at making the necessary allegations and arguments to get your case past your employer’s motion for summary judgment or motion to dismiss. In other words, the best chance of success lies in retaining a skilled Atlanta FMLA lawyer.

A recent FMLA ruling by the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeal (whose rulings control federal cases in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama,) highlights the profound risks (and high-stakes downsides) that can come with taking on your case without counsel.

S.N. worked for a cancer treatment center. Sometime before October 2019, S.N. allegedly sought (and the employer approved) a period of FMLA leave. The employer subsequently terminated S.N.’s employment, according to her federal court complaint.

The Georgia General Assembly Weighs Passage of a Bill That Would Ban Many Forms of Workplace Pregnancy Discrimination

April 7, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Workers who make the decision to continue navigating the workplace during (or very shortly after) their pregnancies face many potential challenges, from the logistical to the physical to the emotional. What they shouldn’t have to face is discrimination on the job because they’re continuing to work while pregnant or nursing an infant. Currently, the Georgia General Assembly is considering a bill that would provide very substantial new protections for pregnant workers in this state. Already, federal law prohibits many forms of discrimination against pregnant or breastfeeding/nursing mothers so, if you’ve suffered professional harm because you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you owe it to yourself to contact a knowledgeable Atlanta pregnancy discrimination lawyer to discuss your situation.

The Pregnancy Protection Act would prohibit a variety of employment practices that would, according to the bill, constitute pregnancy discrimination. One crucial element of the bill would require employers to make reasonable accommodations for workers who are pregnant.

Under the act, possible reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers would include things like “longer breaks, time off to recover from childbirth, time off for medical appointments, absences related to medical needs for pregnancy, acquisition or modification of equipment, seating, temporary transfer to a less strenuous or hazardous position, job restructuring, light duty, break time and private non-bathroom space for expressing breast milk, assistance with manual labor, or modified work schedules.”

The Right (and Wrong) Way to Navigate an Employee’s FMLA Request in Georgia

March 31, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants important rights to many workers across the country. The statute also erects some specific obligations on both workers and employers. A worker’s failure to meet their obligations can result in a loss of eligibility for leave, while an employer’s failure to follow the rules can come with a substantial cost, as well. Whether you’re on the employer side or worker side, it pays to ensure that you are following the FMLA’s rules with precision, and a knowledgeable Atlanta FMLA leave lawyer can help you do exactly that.

Recently, a Georgia employer’s failure to meet its FMLA obligations came with the cost of a U.S. Department of Labor investigation and a payment of $67,140 to one of its workers.

The worker was a dock supervisor at a logistics company’s Covington facility. As he prepared for the arrival of his new child in the Spring of 2022, the supervisor submitted a request to take FMLA leave to bond with his new baby and to care for his ill spouse.

Employers’ Health Insurance Coverage Choices and Gender Identity Discrimination in Georgia

March 24, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

For transgender workers in Georgia, the potential to be harmed by discrimination exists on several fronts. Even if an employer refrains from any adverse action directly related to the worker’s performance of their job, other ways to harm that worker still exist, such as the denial of insurance coverage for necessary treatments connected to their transgender condition. When a Georgia employer erects a carve-out in its insurance plan that specifically targets treatments designed for transgender people, then that employer has potentially engaged in gender identity discrimination in violation of Title VII… as well as disability discrimination in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. When that happens, be sure to contact an experienced Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer to find out how to protect your rights.

A.L., whose case this blog covered last year, was one of those employees. A.L. was a sheriff’s deputy in Houston County and a trans woman. The deputy’s medical providers diagnosed her with gender dysphoria and recommended hormone treatment, breast implants, and a vaginoplasty.

The employer’s health insurance refused to cover the care. As the deputy pointed out, the plan was discriminatory, covering hormone treatments when doctors prescribed them in relation to a woman’s menopause, but not in relation to a trans woman’s transition. Additionally, the plan covered mastectomies when needed as part of cancer treatment, but excluded them when they were part of a trans man’s gender dysphoria care.

Establishing a ‘Convincing Mosaic of Circumstantial Evidence’ in Support of Your Workplace Race Discrimination Case

March 17, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When you seek to defeat your employer’s motion for summary judgment in your discrimination case, you may have multiple avenues through which you can do that. One is to provide the court “a convincing mosaic of circumstantial evidence that raises a reasonable inference that the employer discriminated against” you. A knowledgeable Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer can help you ensure you’re amassing and presenting the evidence you need to defeat your employer’s motion and get your day in court before a jury.

M.B. was a Black man whose race discrimination case advanced using that “mosaic” method.

M.B. began working at a manufacturing facility in Flowery Branch in 2006. He rose to shift lead but never ascended any higher. That professional stagnation was not for lack of trying. From February 2017 to January 2018 alone, he applied for promotions five different times. Five times the employer turned him down.

A North Georgia HR Director Receives $460K in a Settlement of a Federal Age Discrimination Dispute

March 10, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When an employer denies a worker a promotion, fires them, or refuses to hire them because they’re over 40, that decision potentially represents a violation of federal law (the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).) If you’ve encountered an age discrimination issue — whether as an employee or an employer — an experienced Atlanta age discrimination lawyer can help you map out the path forward that is the most advantageous given your specific circumstances.

Observers have noted that age discrimination actions are on the rise. That includes here in Georgia.

In one recent age discrimination case, the employer was an Alpharetta-based manufacturer of connectors used in medical devices. Allegedly, after the employer named a new CEO in 2016 and a new president in 2019, the pair embarked on a plan to get rid of all the company’s older management employees and sales workers, replacing them with a new, younger staff.

A New Wage and Hour Ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court and Its Potential Impact on Some High-Earners in Georgia

February 28, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In an important new ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court recently clarified the standards under which a worker does (or does not) qualify as a salaried exempt employee for purposes of overtime compensation. The 6-3 decision in favor of an oil rig worker clarifies that just because an employee earns a very high income, that does not automatically mean that he/she is an exempt employee. Regardless of how much you make, if you think that you meet the legal standards for a non-exempt employee, then you may be entitled to overtime pay and if your employer didn’t compensate you accordingly, you potentially can, with the aid of the right Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer, win compensation in a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit.

The worker, M.H., worked as a tool pusher on an offshore oil rig. That job typically entailed the employee working 12-14 hours per day, seven days per week for a stint of four weeks, followed by four weeks off. The employer paid the pusher a daily rate of $963. All totaled, the worker earned more than $200,000 annually.

Neither the worker nor the employer argued that 29 CFR 541.604(b) applied to the pusher’s circumstance. That’s the federal regulation that says that if a worker receives extra pay based on his/her work hours, he/she can still be an exempt employee so long as there was a “reasonable relationship” between the worker’s periodic salary and the amount the worker actually earned each period.

Your Administrative Charge, Your Georgia Discrimination Suit, and What Happens if You Encounter Retaliation After You File With the EEOC

February 21, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In cases of employment discrimination and retaliation, the worker’s ability to pursue that claim in court depends on more than just the strength of the factual evidence he/she has. The law imposes certain requirements that, if not satisfied, can completely derail the worker’s case. One of these is something called the “exhaustion of administrative remedies,” which means going through the proper administrative agency before suing in court. Whether you’re a worker or an employer, issues like exhaustion can dramatically alter the trajectory of your case, and these issues represent just one of the countless reasons why it pays to have a knowledgeable Atlanta employment retaliation lawyer handling your case.

One U.S. Postal Service employee recently lost his claim for this reason. The worker, E.E., was an African-American male and mail handler. In 2003, the handler suffered a lower-back injury that impaired his ability to do “repetitive motions such as bending, lifting, twisting, and turning.”

In 2016, the handler’s supervisor assigned him to a “modified job position.” That new position had the impact of reducing the handler’s daily hours by 75%, which also triggered a reduction in his pay. In response, the handler filed a race and disability discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A few months later, the supervisor allegedly retaliated against the handler because he complained to the EEOC.