Rodriguez v. Maricopa County Cmty. Coll., 605 F.3d 703 (9th Cir. 2010)

Professor Walter Kehowski sent three racially-charged emails over a distribution list maintained by the college district where he teaches math. Every district employee with an email address received Kehowski’s messages, including plaintiffs in this case – a certified class of the district’s Hispanic employees. Plaintiffs sued the district, its governing board and two district administrators, claiming their failure to properly respond to the emails created a hostile environment in violation of Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause.

It’s that time of the year. School is out. The weather is warm. And high school and college students all over the country are descending on the workforce in search of temporary summer employment. That means it’s also time for businesses who take on temporary summer workers to familiarize themselves with the federal and state regulations governing the wages and hours of "interns."

On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, I will be speaking at the 2010 Employment Law Update telephonic conference sponsored by CEB.  It is always a lively and informative program, and I encourage you to enroll.  The program runs from 1:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. (Pacific).  One hour of MCLE credit is available.

Details after the break.

Today, in a decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case involving an employee’s assertion that a government employer had violated the Fourth Amendment by unreasonably obtaining and reviewing personal text messages sent and received on employer-issued pagers.  Justices Stevens and Scalia issued concurring opinions.

City of Ontario v. Quon (08-1332)

California legislators have introduced a series of bills that, if enacted, would further expand liability for employers and would significantly increase the cost and risk of doing business in California.  Not surprisingly, the California Chamber of Commerce has labeled these bills “job killers.”

In a related development, California’s unemployment rate hovers at 12.6% — the third highest in the nation.

The California Supreme Court unanimously held that businesses cannot be liable under state wage and hour laws for the failure of an independent contractor to properly pay wages to its employees and confirmed the bar on personal liability for officers, directors and agents of a business for violations of state wage and hour laws.
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The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement opined that an intensive educational and training program designed for young urban adults (18-24 years old) that places these individuals in internships with non-profit and for-profit businesses is exempt from the minimum wage law (interns receive a stipend but not a salary or wages). DLSE Opinion Letter (Apr. 7, 2010), available at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/OpinionLetters-byDate.htm.

Rosas v. The Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, 598 F.3d 668 (9th Cir. 2010)

Cesar Rosas and Jesus Alcazar were Catholic seminarians who sued the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop for, among other things, failure to pay them overtime wages under Washington state law. Based on the ministerial exception, the district court dismissed the case on the pleadings. The Ninth Circuit affirmed,…

Bamonte v. City of Mesa, 598 F.3d 1217 (9th Cir. 2010)

The plaintiffs in this case are employed as police officers for the City of Mesa, Arizona. They contended that the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by failing to compensate them for the time spent donning and doffing their uniforms and accompanying gear. The district court dismissed the lawsuit on summary…