Media outlets around Louisiana recently reported on a new program from the Louisiana Workforce Commission pursuant to which employers have the opportunity to report job applicants who are either no-shows for job interviews or who turn down job offers. Here are links to stories from WAFB in Baton Rouge, KTBS in Shreveport, KNOE in Monroe, KATC in Lafayette, and KPLC in Lake Charles. Employers now able to report no shows, job refusals | WAFB Employers able to combat no-shows, job refusals | KTBS La. employers can now report no-shows for interviews or job refusals | KNOE New process aims to imp ..read more

On August 18, 2023, in Hamilton v. Dallas County,[1] the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, handed down a significant Title VII ruling that has far-reaching implications for future employment discrimination cases in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Employees seeking to bring a discrimination claim no longer need to meet the high burden of proving they suffered an “ultimate employment decision.” Instead, the Fifth Circuit has aligned with its sister circuits, and plaintiffs need only show they suffered from a discriminatory act related to hiring, firing, compensat ..read more

In Gauthreaux v. The City of Gretna, 22-424 (La. App. 5 Cir. 3/29/23), ___ So.3d ___, 2023 WL 2674191, Louisiana’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal held that Louisiana’s statutory employment protections related to sex did not extend to sexual orientation and declined to extend the United States Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia decision to claims arising under state law. The Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed the decision of the trial court and dismissed the case for no cause of action. The Court of Appeal reasoned that the Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law, specifically L ..read more

ADA Background In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA or Act”).[1] The purpose of the Act is to provide protection and certain rights for Americans with disabilities. One of Congress’ goals was to ensure that people with disabilities are able to fully participate in all aspects of society.[2] Title III of the Act provides that “no individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns ..read more

In recent years many employers have implemented mandatory arbitration agreements to require that legal disputes with employees be decided by a neutral arbitrator, rather than by jury trial.  Arbitration agreements are coming under scrutiny as unfairly preventing employees from having their “day in court” and having access to jury trials – most recently with the passage of the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021,” which took effect March 3, 2022 and now prohibits pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate sexual harassment and sexual assault claims (unle ..read more

In Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v. Hewitt, an en banc U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 12-6 ruling last year finding that a highly paid offshore supervisor (who was paid more than $200,000 per year on a day rate basis) was entitled to overtime premium pay because he was not paid on a “salary basis” consistent with long-standing Department of Labor Regulations. Helix Energy, with the support of amicus curiae briefing by the American Petroleum Institute, filed a petition for certiorari seeking further review of the issue, which the United States Supreme Court recently granted. He ..read more

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States heard argument in Badgerow v. Walters[1] as to an important jurisdictional question under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. 1, et seq. Specifically, the question presented to SCOTUS was whether federal courts have subject-matter jurisdiction to confirm or vacate an arbitration award under the FAA (Sections 9 and 10) when the only basis for jurisdiction is that the underlying dispute involved a federal question. In Badgerow v. Walters, Denise Badgerow was employed as an associate financial advisor with REJ Properties, Inc., a Louisia ..read more

Louisiana law requires the timely and prompt payment of all amounts due a discharged, resigning, or retiring employee.  Under Louisiana law, vacation pay is considered an amount due if the employee was eligible for vacation with pay, had accrued the right to take vacation with pay, and the employee had not taken or been compensated for the vacation time as of the date of the employee’s departure.  The recent retirement of Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin’s former head football coach and athletic director, illustrates how accrued but unused vacation can add up. In Alvarez’s case, as reported ..read more

On January 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vastly changed the landscape for collective action wage and hour claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In Swales v. KLLM Transport Services, L.L.C., the Fifth Circuit rejected the lenient standard typically employed by federal district courts for “conditionally certifying” collective actions and ruled that courts must, instead, do the difficult work to rigorously scrutinize whether workers are similarly situated to the named plaintiff before sending notice to potential opt-in plaintiffs.  According to the C ..read more

On Monday, December 21, 2020, Congress passed another stimulus package to provide certain coronavirus relief for individuals and businesses, among other things. One looming question was whether Congress would extend the emergency paid sick leave (EPSL) and emergency paid family leave (EFMLA) provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) into next year? The answer is – no. The FFCRA paid leave laws have not been extended, and thus the paid leave law mandates for employers who have fewer than 500 employees expire at 11:59pm on December 31, 2020. However, Congress’s latest pa ..read more