Kroger Files Motion to Dismiss Race/Sex Harassment Lawsuit

In a case that our law firm has been handling, the employer, Kroger, has filed a motion for summary judgment seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed. They claim that there are insufficient disputed facts to warrant a trial. The case is pending in US District Court in Houston and is set for trial this summer.

In this case, our client filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that a co-worker harassed her because she is black and female, by among other things, calling her a “nigger.” Store managers, Raymond Wei and Mike Childs, have signed statements on behalf of Kroger’s motion.

Co-manager of the Kroger store (in Sugar Land, Tx), Raymond Wei, verifies that our client complained about a co-worker using curse words at her, and he notes that a customer verified our client’s complaint. Store manager Mike Childs has verified that the offending employee was disciplined at least one time, yet, his employer still seeks dismissal of the case.

In their motion, Kroger claims that our client cannot prove sufficient facts to win, so the judge should dismiss the case. This is a common defense tactic in almost every discrimination case. Unfortunately, many times a judge will dismiss the case without the employee-victim ever getting their day in court for a trial. In this case, we plan to respond to the motion with compelling evidence, so hopefully the judge will let our client proceed to trial before a jury.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

90 Years Old is Too Soon to Retire

I read a story, recently, in the Miami Herald, which reminded me about one of my clients. The story was about Sister Marie Schramko, the 95 year old assistant principal at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale. The article talked about how amazing it is that she is still working at the age of 95.

This story reminded me of my client, Rosa Lopez, who at 92 was working as a Registered Nurse at Miami Behavioral Health Center until she was unceremoniously fired after 30 years of service, with no notice and no severance pay. Now, 93, Lopez still desires to work but has been unable to find employment.

Lopez has filed a federal court lawsuit against Miami Behavioral Health Center, alleging discrimination based on age and disability. In particular, she alleges that her supervisor Ron Espinoza made comments to her that she needed to retire because of her advanced age and medical condition.

While most of us can only dream of living to age 90 or beyond, it is truly amazing that these two South Florida women, have been able to continue working well-into their 90′s.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Facebook Users Talk About Giving Employers Their Passwords

NBC-Miami interview of me regarding employers asking for Facebook passwords

Read the full article here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Facebook Password Required at Job Interview?

Is a prospective employee required to give their Facebook password at a job interview? Clearly an invasion of privacy? Well, believe it or not, there is no law about any of this.

Last week, members of the U.S.Senate, asked for an investigation, but the truth is, the matter had never been addressed. Employers are always coming up with new and creative ways to fire employees, and now they have a new method to use in the hiring process. Will Congress or state legislatures stop them? I sure hope so!

I noticed that one senator asked the EEOC to look into the matter. However, the EEOC investigates complaints of discrimination based on age, race, sex, etc., but certainly no issues involving privacy. I guess the senator was looking for some avenue, and the EEOC is about the only avenue for wronged employees. Unfortunately, the EEOC would have to make quite a stretch to link a Facebook password with unlawful discrimination against a particular group.

It will be interesting to watch how this new area of employment law develops. No doubt, soon enough, I’ll have clients coming in with these issues.

photo from: Forbes.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Coane and Associates’ Client Sues Company for Overtime Pay

Our law firm, Coane and Associates, just recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a client for overtime pay. Our client worked at Liberty Power Corporation in South Florida, and claims that the company had him working more than 40 hours a week without any extra pay or overtime.

In 2011, the company installed time clocks and then started paying proper overtime, but before that, they were simply paying regular hourly rates to workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act generally requires employers to pay their non-exempt workers 1.5 times their hourly rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in a week.

Our client was also fired by the company and has a discrimination complaint pending with the EEOC. The lawsuit is filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Employee Rights: Pregnancy Discrimination is Illegal

Employers and companies all have anti-discriminatory policies, unfortunately even if this is so, there are still cases where employees experience and endure this. One form of employment discrimination that does not get much publicity, is pregnancy discrimination where employers are bias over their pregnant workers, forcing them to take a leave, work shorter hours or even discharging them because of their pregnancy. My law firm, Coane and Associates, handles a few of these cases every year.

Here is an interesting article about pregnancy discrimination : Pregnancy Discrimination in America.

photo from: Babble.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

Depositions continue in Carnival Cruise Line Race Discrimination case

I took another deposition yesterday in our client’s race discrimination/retaliation case against Carnival Cruise Lines. The deposition took place at our Coane and Associates office in South Beach, not far from the Carnival headquarters in Miami.

Today’s deposition was of the Singer Supervisor, who auditions and hires singers to perform on Carnival cruise ships. Our client, a black male, was a production singer on board the Carnival Inspiration ship. After his six month tour as lead singer, he was not offered a renewal contract. Our client alleges that he was not renewed because he is black, and in retaliation for complaining about discrimination to the EEOC.

At today’s deposition, the supervisor said that our client is not barred from re-hire, but just isn’t at the top of his list. Our client says he isn’t at the top of the list because he is being retaliated against for complaining to the EEOC about alleged discriminatory practices. The case is set for jury trial on September 24 in federal court in Miami.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the author: Bruce Coane is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, and, immigration law, with offices in Florida and Texas. He may be reached at houstonlaw@aol.com, 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

93 Year Old Nurse Sues for Age Discrimination

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami last month, a 93 year old woman sued Miami Behavioral Health Center, Inc. for age discrimination. Our law firm, Coane and Associates, represents the woman, Rosa Lopez.

In the lawsuit, our client alleges that her supervisor told her that because of her age and health, she should retire. The ADEA (Age Discrimination and Employment Act of 1967) prohibits employment discrimination against anyone at least 40 years of age , such discrimination can be in the form of termination, layoffs, wages and promotions.

In the case of our client, her supervisor allegedly added new job duties which interfere with her scheduled patients making it seem that she is not capable of fulfilling her work. She was terminated in October 2010, and then filed an age discrimination complaint with the EEOC. Her lawsuit was filed last month, and a trial date has yet to be set.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bruce Coane is a leading lawyer with 30 years of experience in the field of immigration law and employment law. He may be reached via email at houstonlaw@aol.com or his website at Coane and Associates.

Settlement of Discrimination cases

I was closing out a file last night, where my client sued for sex harassment and retaliation under Title VII of the federal civil rights act. As I was closing the file, I came across some early correspondence in the case.

The case was against a giant national company, and I had written to them before filing the lawsuit. I explained that they wrongfully fired my client and suggested that they give him a fair severance package. Their in-house company lawyer wrote back and told me my client’s case was worthless, and completely without merit, and they were within their rights to fire him. The company lawyer invited me to sue, refused mediation and offered zero to settle the case.

Fast forward about 9 months to the end of 2011, and they are writing a check for $60,000 following mediation, to settle the case. Of course , by then, they had wasted tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees, and probably could have settled for much less, had they paid a reasonable severance package earlier.

I often wonder why companies don’t do the right thing and offer to resolve employee grievances early-on. In most countries around the world, the law REQUIRES severance pay, but not in the United States. Many American companies, however, offer severance packages to terminated employees because it’s the right thing to do, and it probably serves to avoid lawsuits.

Coane and Associates is a law firm with office in Texas and Florida, and we represent employees in all matters of employment law.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bruce Coane is a leading lawyer with 30 years of experience in the field of immigration law and employment law. He may be reached via email at houstonlaw@aol.com or his website at Coane and Associates.

Coane & Associates can help you with I-9 violations

The government continues to expand it’s enforcement of I-9 violations by employers. The government, through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does audits and raids, in order to check on I-9 forms and/or illegal workers What is an employer to do?

This blog addresses civil violations only. In many cases, employers are paying huge civil penalties. On the other hand, the government has expressly stated that they are looking to get criminal sanctions against employers. In those criminal penalty cases, an employer definitely needs representation by a criminal lawyer. However, in a case involving civil penalties, the question arises as to how the employer should defend.

Our law firm has fought these civil penalty cases on behalf of employers and obtained some excellent settlements. While I have read of cases where employers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil penalties, one must wonder, why? Why would an employer choose to pay a huge settlement when they have a good chance of successfully fighting a case and/or getting a significantly lesser penalty? Of course, if the government is threatening criminal sanctions, then the payment of large civil penalties may make sense, but, if there is no specific threat of criminal charges, an employer should seriously consider fighting the proposed penalties.

A civil action for I-9 penalty fees is just like any other civil litigation, except it occurs before an administrative judge. However, the same rules and procedures of real courts generally apply. Those procedures include mediation, settlement, discovery, etc. Our experience is that employers can defend by taking depositions and using other discovery tools to obtain favorable testimony and evidence. Once that evidence and testimony is gathered, the government may be much more willing to settle for a reasonable amount, which could be far less than the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars they would typically get.

For employers needing representation in these types of cases, which we handle all across the United States, they may contact me directly at my personal email, houstonlaw@aol.com, or call our offices at 713-850-0066 or 305-538-6800.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bruce Coane is a leading lawyer with 30 years of experience in the field of immigration law and employment law. He may be reached via email at houstonlaw@aol.com or his website at Coane and Associates.