“A morning radio host fired after he threatened the wife and young daughter of a rival during on-air rants has sued his former employer for breach of contract, alleging his comments did not breach acceptable decency standards.” Troi Torain, who broadcast under the name “Star”, was fired by Clear Channel’s Power 105 and later arrested for threatening to commit grotesque acts of abuse upon the 4-year-old daughter of a rival DJ, Raashuan Casey. A judge dismissed the charges on condition that Torain stay out of trouble for six months. His new suit says the episode wasn’t significant enough to warrant his dismissal; $10 million would help make things better. (Joshua Rhett Miller, “Star on attack with Clear Channel suit”, New York Metro, Sept. 14). More: Rafer Guzman, “Star: Notoriety good for business”, Newsday, Aug. 30.
Posts Tagged ‘workplace’
“Strippers fight for back pay”
The exotic dancers’ lawsuit against Anchorage strip clubs Fantasies on 5th Avenue and Crazy Horse cites the Alaska Wage and Hour Act and seeks class-action status. Key quote: “This isn’t about how much money I make in tips,” said dancer Jennifer Prater. “This is about wage and hour laws.” A 1987 Alaska Supreme Court ruling rejected clubs’ contention that the dancers were independent contractors as opposed to employees. (Megan Holland, Anchorage Daily News, Sept. 6).
Great moments in diversity training
“In a strange twist to Britain’s newest terrorism scare, a regional police force admitted Monday that it had sent officers for ‘diversity training’ to an Islamic school that the police searched Sunday as part of a crackdown on jihadist recruiters and trainers. In a statement, the Sussex police said the Jameah Islameah school south of London ‘has been used by officers and staff undergoing advanced training for their role as diversity trainers to the rest of the work force.'” (Alan Cowell, “British School, Searched in Inquiry, Was Used to Train Police”, New York Times, Sept. 5).
CNBC “Morning Call” today
I’m scheduled to be a guest this morning at 11:45 Eastern Time on CNBC’s “Morning Call“, discussing the possibilities that employers will get sued over their employees’ “BlackBerry addiction“. I’ll be arguing that such suits are unlikely to get anywhere if filed.
Second Circuit nixes teacher-competence test
In a case entitled Gulino v. New York State Education Department, the federal appeals court earlier this month “reinstated a race discrimination suit against the New York State Education Department based on the theory that a test of ‘basic college-level content’ that asks applicants to get just two-thirds of the questions right is racially discriminatory because it has a ‘disparate impact’ on African-American and Latino teachers.” Dan McLaughlin at Baseball Crank acknowledges that the court relied on existing Supreme Court precedent, but is still rubbed the wrong way by its assumptions (Aug. 31).
Gayle Porter and Blackberries
Rutgers management professor Gayle Porter shows she’s much better at self-publicity than law by generating loads of press coverage for her unfounded claim that employees might hold employers liable for the cost to their personal lives from addiction to personal e-mail devices. (E.g., this uncritical Reuters report (hat-tip F.R.)) Then again, modern-day plaintiffs’ lawyers have shown themselves perfectly capable of enough shamelessness to turn parody to reality.
UK: saving bagpipers from themselves, cont’d
To a chorus of dismay from many of those affected, health and safety inspectors have issued strict new guidelines intended to protect soldiers who play the Scottish bagpipes from suffering hearing loss. “As well as wearing ear protectors, the guidelines insist that pipers should only play for a maximum of 24 minutes a day outside, and only 15 in practice rooms….The tests were run because the military feared the possibility of having to pay compensation to soldiers who might argue that their hearing had been damaged by too much pipe-playing. The Ministry of Defence already makes special payments to personnel whose hearing has been affected by working on rifle ranges or in other loud environments.” Aficionados of the beloved Scottish instrument called the rules “silly” and “just ridiculous”; an aspiring piper who wants to excel should be spending more than 15 minutes a day on practice, said one. “The pipes should be played loudly, that’s how they inspire soldiers and scare the enemy,” said Bill Lark, 85, “a veteran Black Watch piper who led his comrades into action against the Japanese in 1944”. (Murdo MacLeod, “Army pipers can’t believe their ears”, Scotland on Sunday/The Scotsman, Jul. 23)(via Dave Zincavage). Earlier coverage: Dec. 22-25, 2000; Mar. 8-10, 2002; Jan. 12, 2004; Nov. 19, 2005.
Self-parody law firm employment case
Scanning through million-dollar verdicts looking for Overlawyered stories, I found this $1.1 million verdict against a California law firm for failure to accommodate an attorney who asked to be able to bill 140 hours a month while undergoing treatment for liver disease.
Not especially notable, but I was highly entertained that the law firm’s defense was that it really fired Warren Snider because he took time off to go to his father-in-law’s memorial service. (Tina Bay, “Jury Awards Lawyer $1.1 Million in Wrongful Termination Suit”, Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Aug. 7).
Update: Crime & Federalism has more.
There oughta be a law!
A recent, much-talked-about New York Times article about middle-aged men who have been out of work for long periods and are not looking very hard for jobs (Louis Uchitelle and David Leonhardt, “Men Not Working, and Not Wanting Just Any Job”, Jul. 31) elicited the following, priceless letter to the editor (Aug. 2):
To the Editor:
The surest way to help these men (and women) is to pass anti-age job discrimination legislation.
There is nothing more repugnant than reading the phrase “but the publisher did not seem to want someone my age.”
This type of discrimination is widely accepted.
If a worker is capable of doing the job well, his age should not count against him.
If we do not address this problem soon, with increasing longevity among our citizens, we will become a nation of the underemployed, something our society can ill afford.
Bonnie Schultz
Princeton, N.J.
To which our correspondent appends the comment:
Wow. Pass some legislation outlawing discrimination against older workers? Now that’s brilliant! Why didn’t anyone do that yet? Oh, wait.
Why do they publish such a letter? Is someone at the NYT angry with Ms. Schultz and happy to put her in the worst light?
Employees charged with crimes
Sued-if-you-do, sued-if-you-don’t files: “‘I think companies are concerned that if they take action against the employee, the employee may bring a claim. And if they don’t take action, others who are injured may bring a claim,’ said employment attorney Jonathan Segal of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia. Segal noted that companies are increasingly dealing with employees who miss work because of criminal offenses like drunk driving or assault charges.” (Tresa Baldas, “When Employees Face Criminal Charges, Employers Face a Dilemma”, National Law Journal, Jul. 20).