Employment Practices Liability

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I have been writing this blog for a long time now, and the one thing that I know from the experience is that there is always something new. The latest novelty to develop is the emergence of class action litigation related to employers’ alleged violation of statutorily mandated pay range disclosure requirements. Several states, including the state of Washington, have enacted laws requiring the disclosure in job postings of salary or wage ranges. Class action plaintiffs’ attorneys are quickly targeting employers for alleged violations of these laws, with an at least theoretical potential for massive damage awards. As discussed below, this newly and quickly emerging class of litigation could present some interesting insurance questions. An October 17, 2023, memo from the Ogletree Deakins law firm discussing the new statutory requirements and emerging litigation can be found here.Continue Reading Emerging Pay Range Disclosure Class Action Suits and Related Insurance Issues

Sarah Abrams, Esq.

The pandemic’s disruption has had divergent effects on different population segments. In the following guest post Sarah Abrams, Esq., Director, Management Liability Markel, takes a look at the implication of this divergent population impact upon organizations’ diversity and inclusion efforts. The viewpoints expressed in the article are the authors alone and that not that of Markel. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Achieving Organizational Diversity in the Wake of the Pandemic

As local coronavirus pandemic-related stay-at-home orders expire or are withdrawn over the coming weeks, employees will be returning to the workplace. According to a recent blog post, a “wave of workplace class actions” could follow in connection with the return to work. In an April 26, 2020 blog post on the Workplace Class Action Blog entitled “The Coming Surge of Workplace Class Actions in the Wake of COVID-19” (here), Gerald Maatman and Jennifer Riley of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm predict a surge of workplace lawsuits “in several key areas such as discrimination and workplace bias, wage & hour, as well as on the health & safety front.”
Continue Reading Will a Wave of Workplace Lawsuits Follow the Return to Work?

The number of workplace discrimination and harassment charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  (EEOC) during Fiscal Year 2019 (which ended September 30, 2019) declined to the lowest level since at least FY 1997 (the earliest year reported on the agency’s website), according the EEOC’s recent statistical release. The number of charges overall had also declined in the 2018 fiscal year, but in 2018, the number of sexual harassment charges had increased, apparently in response to  the #MeToo movement. However, in FY 2019, the number of sexual harassment charges also decreased as part of the overall decrease in the number of charges, suggesting that the impact of the #MeToo movement diminished during the most recent fiscal year. The agency’s January 24, 2020 press release about the charge statistics can be found here. The agency’s enforcement and litigation statistics can be found here.
Continue Reading EEOC Charges Filed in FY 2019 Declined to Lowest Level in Years

John M. Orr

Jully Y. Rojas

As many readers undoubtedly are aware, California’s governor recently signed into law legislation that would re-classify app-based workers as “employees” rather than as “independent contractors. As discussed below in a guest post written by John M. Orr and Jully Y. Rojas, these recent changes in California law could have national significance. The changes could have significant Employment Practices Liability Insurance implications as well. John is a Director in Willis Towers Watson’s FINEX (Financial, Executive & Professional Risk) division. Jully is a member of FINEX’s Claims & Legal Group. Both are resident in the firm’s San Francisco office. The authors wish to thank Talene Carter, Willis Towers Watson’s Employment Practices Liability product leader, for her insights and guidance. A version of this article previously appeared on the Willis Towers Watson site. I would like to thank John and Jully for their willingness to allow me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors in topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John and Jully’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Classifying Gig Economy Workers under Changing California Law

In the following guest post, Kelly Johnson of Hiscox USA and  James Talbert and Elan Kandel of Bailey Cavalieri took a look at a recent judicial decision addressing the question of whether a wage and hour claim represents an employment related misrepresentation within the meaning of an Employment Practices Liability Insurance policy. I would like to thank Kelly, James, and Elan for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Kelly, James and Elan’s article.  
Continue Reading Guest Post: Courts Reject Wage and Hour Claims as Employment-Related Misrepresentation Theory

As I have noted in prior posts (for example, here), a few plaintiffs’ law firms have launched a wave of lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) based on website inaccessibility allegations. In one of the first appellate court decisions on the legal issues these cases present, the Ninth Circuit recently reversed a lower court dismissal of a website and mobile app accessibility lawsuit that had been filed against Domino’s Pizza. The appellate court’s ruling underscores the exposures companies face for these kinds of lawsuits. The Ninth Circuit’s January 15, 2019 opinion in Robles v. Domino’s Pizza can be found here.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Addresses Website and Mobile App ADA Accessibility

Eric Scheiner

Jennifer Broda

As I have extensively noted on this blog, one of the most important recent developments in the management liability and insurance arena has been the emergence of the #MeToo movement, along with its revelations of sexual misconduct and accompanying claims. In the following post, Eric Scheiner and Jennifer Quinn Broda, partners at Kennedys CMK’s Chicago office, take a look at the evolving #MeToo movement and the implications of the movement’s  evolution both with respect to claims and with respect to insurance coverage. I would like to thank Eric and Jennifer for their willingness to allow me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit an article. Here is Eric and Jennifer’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: EPL Claims: Changing Norms and New Legislation in the #MeToo Era

Machua Millett

My recent post about wage and hour exposure and insurance triggered an email exchange with one of the blog’s readers, Machua Millett, who is the Chief Innovation Officer for the financial and professional unit (FINPRO) at Marsh.  The email exchange involved a lot of information that we both agreed might be of interest to all of the blog’s readers. Rather than try to turn the email correspondence into a blog post, we reconstructed the exchange in the form of a Q&A, which is set out below. I would like to thank Mach for reaching out to me in the first place, for his willingness to share ideas and information, and for his willingness to participate in the Q&A, below. My questions are set out in italics, Mach’s answers to each question follow. 
Continue Reading A Q&A on Wage & Hour Insurance

In a May 16, 2018 press release (here), Michigan State University announced that its board of trustees has approved a settlement in which the university agreed to pay MSU doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual assault victims a total of $500 million. There are a number of noteworthy features to this settlement agreement, beyond just its sheer size. Among other things, the school does not yet know for sure how it is going to fund the settlement.
Continue Reading Michigan State Agrees to Pay Sexual Assault Victims $500 Million