Opus Group LLC

The improper use of cell phones by Mayor Kwame Kilpartick and his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, issued by their employer, the City of Detroit, led to the downfall of both after a series of legal proceedings. Kilpatrick agreed to resign as Mayor of Detroit effective September 18, 2008, as part of a plea agreement on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and official misconduct, filed after hundreds of sexually explicit text messages, printed in local papers, proved that he had committed perjury when he testified in a civil trial that he had not had an affair with Beatty.

In a whistleblower suit Kilpatrick was (more…)

A federal appellate court¹ recently ruled that an employee who was deemed ineligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is nonetheless entitled to take the leave because the employee satisfied all conditions for FMLA leave set forth in the employee handbook.

To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must (more…)

Under certain circumstances employers can avoid vicarious liability or even certain damages for a supervisor’s sexual harassment of a subordinate worker. This happens when (1) the employer had a meaningful anti-harassment policy, (2) it exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any sexually harassing behavior, and (3) the victim (more…)

In a unanimous decision handed down on January 26, 2009, the United States Supreme Court expanded the ability to sue for retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the case of Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, a discharged employee of the school district claimed that she was fired after she told internal investigators of the school district about the inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment by its (more…)

Employers are regularly sued by disaffected employees claiming to be the target of racial discrimination or sexual harassment by supervisors or coworkers. The allegations usually allege that the employer failed to

• institute a clear and comprehensive anti-harassment policy
• disseminate the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy to employees
• establish a complaint procedure
• conduct a prompt, thorough and unbiased investigation
• provide remedial action and protection for the victim
• impose meaningful and appropriate discipline on the violator

In the recently decided case (D.M. v. Walgreen Pharmacy, Inc.) the court examined these allegations and affirmed the (more…)

The Department of Labor (DOL) issued new regulations interpreting The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA was enacted in 1993 and is codified at 29 U.S.C. § 2601 to § 2654. The new final regulations were issued on November 17, 2008 and became effective on January 16, 2009 and also incorporate the military family leave entitlements enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The regulations are expansive and take up 200 pages in the Federal Register (29 CFR Part 825). The new regulations were developed in response to several U.S. Supreme Court and lower court cases invalidating portions of the prior regulations. The new regulations apply to all employers covered by the FMLA.

It is very important that the newly advanced Family and Medical Leave Act regulations and notice provisions be (more…)