By Eve Tahmincioglu, Today contributor There’s a simple workplace axiom: You put in your hours and get paid for them. Alas, this doesn’t always happen. There’s been a record spike in wage and hour violation claims by employees thanks to sustained tough economic times, an increase in enforcement by the government, and confusion over — or disregard of — overtime pay provisions. Already this year, there have been a record number of lawsuits filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which covers wage and hour provisions, with 7,064 filed so far this year. That’s up from 7,006 filed for all  [ Read More ]

Flip-Flops: Definitely not suitable for work Are American workers getting prudish? They might be. A new survey shows U.S. adults expressing more outrage at scantily-clad co-workers this year than they did last year. The report, commissioned by temporary staffing firm Adecco and based on interviews with more than 1,000 U.S. adults, found that 72% of Americans believe strapless or backless tops and dresses are “inappropriate for the workplace,” up from 66% (strapless) and 64% (backless) in June of last year. Showing a little skin below the knee by wearing shorts, flip-flops or open-toed shoes is also a bigger no-no this  [ Read More ]

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – An East Providence city worker who had been collecting worker’s compensation for several years and was caught on camera doing yard work has resigned, NBC 10 has learned. The city’s insurance company hired an investigator to perform surveillance on 34-year-old David Bradley. The video, which was taken in April, purports to show that Bradley was able to use a shovel, stack stones on a garden wall and push a wheelbarrow. In June, a judge in worker’s compensation court suspended Bradley’s benefits. NBC 10 has learned Bradley resigned his position following the judge’s ruling. Bradley was originally  [ Read More ]

by The HR Specialist: Employment Law on July 20, 2012 1:00pm in FMLA Guidelines,Human Resources Here’s something to watch out for when approving a supervisor’s recommendation to discipline or discharge an employee. If the employee has re­­quested FMLA leave and was previously performing well, be suspicious of claims that she’s now performing poorly. It’s certainly possible that her performance dipped. But it’s also possible that her supervisor resented her leave request. Firing her under those circumstances may mean losing an FMLA retaliation and interference lawsuit. Recent case: Candice worked as a teller at an Illinois bank and received good performance  [ Read More ]

By Beth Pinsker Gladstone | Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Capital One Financial settlement with U.S. regulators over deceptive marketing of credit card “add-on products” means a lot to all consumers, not just Capital One customers, according to consumer advocates. This is the first enforcement action by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, which is about to hit its first anniversary. Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director of advocacy group U.S. PIRG, says it’s significant to the future of the agency that this first move was against a big company over a pernicious practice. “This is a big event for a  [ Read More ]

If you are involved in an employment dispute, or need advice about an employment-related matter, you may need to hire an employment lawyer. An effective employment lawyer can help educate you on state and federal laws concerning wrongful termination, wage disputes, defamation, whistleblower protections, and other employment-related matters. Knowing when to contact or hire an employment lawyer can make the difference between satisfactory recovery of lost time, money, and damages, and never getting compensated for your loss. Below is important information you need to know about hiring an employment lawyer. Why You Need an Employment Lawyer Employment-related matters such as  [ Read More ]

July 16 (Bloomberg) — Brian Stoker, ex-director of Citigroup Inc.’s collateralized debt obligation structuring group, misled investors in the deal at the center of the bank’s proposed $285 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency lawyer told jurors.The SEC claims that Stoker negligently violated securities law in putting together the assets underlying a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation, or CDO, called “Class V Funding III.”“Brian Stoker made untrue statements and materially misstatements to investors,” Jeffrey Infelise, an SEC lawyer, told the jury today at the start of Stoker’s civil trial in Manhattan federal court.The SEC claims Citigroup  [ Read More ]

Not often does a billionaire chief executive of a prominent American brand assert that our system is effectively broken. Yet this is what Howard Schultz, chief executive officer of Starbucks, essentially told me this week when we sat down to discuss the open letter he was about to address to the nation. A few weeks earlier, he had been absorbing a dispiriting run of news — the prospect of another round of perilous brinkmanship over lifting the nation’s debt ceiling, and a presidential campaign that seems disconnected from the crisis of joblessness — when it occurred to him that Independence  [ Read More ]

The iconic figure of the court stenographer has largely been replaced by digital recording devices in Superior Court in Hackensack and Paterson and almost all such courtrooms in New Jersey as the state judiciary moves toward new technology. Proponents say the change is a successful, cost-effective attempt by courts to keep pace with technology and keep reliable records of proceedings. But the switch also is being watched closely by skeptics, who say recording technology is never a full substitute for a court reporter. Of concern are the uniquely human aspects now absent. For instance, court reporters often interrupt proceedings to  [ Read More ]

At the Law Office of Stephan T. Mashel, our NJ employment lawyers are passionate about protecting workers and enforcing employee rights throughout New Jersey. We fight to stop unlawful treatment on the job and aggressively pursue claims against employers in order to recover the damages and losses our clients have suffered. The law firm of Stephan T. Mashel, located in Marlboro, New Jersey, is dedicated exclusively to protecting the rights of employees. Unlike other firms that practice law in a variety of areas, we practice in only one area – employment rights. We represent the legal interests of our clients  [ Read More ]

By Monica Bay | Law Technology News E-discovery vendors will be happy to hear the metrics released Thursday by The Cowen Group, a New York-based headhunter and research consultancy, which show a strong spurt of growth in electronic data discovery workload at law firms. Writes managing partner David Cowen, in the executive summary: “2012 has been a year of progress and promise for e-discovery professionals.” The survey, of 88 law firm and corporate law department professionals, found that 70 percent of law firms reported an increase in workload for their litigation support and e-discovery departments. That figure, says Cowen, is  [ Read More ]

By msnbc.com staff and news services The Justice Department says Wells Fargo & Co. will pay at least $175 million to settle accusations that it allegedly discriminated against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers in its mortgage lending from 2004 through 2009. The settlement, which needs approval from a judge, would end the investigation into whether the fourth largest U.S. bank between 2004 and 2009 knowingly targeted minorities for risky mortgages that came with higher costs, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “The Department of Justice today filed the second largest fair lending  [ Read More ]

Discrimination | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about prejudicial treatment. For statistical discrimination, see linear discriminant analysis. For other uses, see wikt:discrimination. Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on his or her membership – or perceived membership – in a certain group or category. It involves the group’s initial reaction or interaction, influencing the individual’s actual behavior towards the group or the group leader, restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to a group, leading to the exclusion of the individual or entities based on logical or irrational decisionmaking. [1] Discriminatory  [ Read More ]

New Jersey Employment Law Attorneys New Jersey employment law protects individuals who have been wrongfully terminated, harassed, or have experienced an infraction of one of their other New Jersey employment rights. At the Law Office of Stephan T. Mashel, our NJ employment lawyers are passionate about protecting workers and enforcing employee rights throughout New Jersey. We fight to stop unlawful treatment on the job and aggressively pursue claims against employers in order to recover the damages and losses our clients have suffered. The law firm of Stephan T. Mashel, located in Marlboro, New Jersey, is dedicated exclusively to protecting the  [ Read More ]

By Ed Beeson/The Star-Ledger Starting Saturday, more than 26,000 out-of-work New Jerseyans who have been searching for a job the longest will have a safety net yanked out from under them. The same prospect is looming for 100,000 more as federal unemployment benefits are due to expire by the end of the year. Because of a quirk in federal law and the state’s slowly improving employment picture, so-called extended benefits for New Jersey’s jobless will stop Saturday. These benefits cover people who have been out of work and collecting unemployment for between 79 weeks and 99 weeks. But ultimately, the  [ Read More ]