On March 29, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a one sentence 4-4 decision in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The Court’s decision stated, in total: “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court.” This opinion leaves undisturbed the U.S. Court of Appeals decision which upheld the California law requiring public employees who chose [...]
FHKA has received a favorable decision from the Ohio Supreme Court in a public records case involving the West Licking Joint Fire District. In the case of Davis v. Metzger, et al., Case No. 2014-2026, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Licking County Court of Appeals in which the West Licking Joint [...]
A petition to amend the Ohio Constitution to legalize medical marijuana has been certified by both the Ohio Attorney General and the Ohio Ballot Board. The initiative, submitted by Ohioans for Medical Marijuana and backed by the national advocacy group, Marijuana Policy Project, must now obtain signatures from 305,591 registered voters by July 6 in [...]
Senate Bill 268 has been introduced into the Ohio Senate. That Bill proposes to amend the Ohio’s Civil Rights Act, O.R.C. 4112, which prohibits Ohio employers from taking adverse employment action against employees because of their race, color, religion, sex, military status, national origin, disability, age, or ancestry of any person. The law also prohibits [...]
The Sixth Circuit has upheld the district court’s granting summary judgment to the Brown County Prosecutor in a civil action filed by five upper-level employees of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources Dept. of Wildlife (Randy Miller, et al. v. Randall Meyer, et al., Case No. 2:14-CV-00101). FHKA successfully represented the Brown County Prosecutor in [...]
The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) recently announced that private employers in Ohio will see an 8.6% reduction in workers’ compensation rates starting July 1, 2016. The BWC approved the price cut last month, which it estimates will save employers approximately $133 million next year. This estimate is on top of the $4.3 billion [...]
On March 17, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held, in part, that a Human Resources director may potentially be individually liable for violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In Graziado v. Culinary Institute of America, Shaynan Garrioch, & Loreen Gardella, No. 15-888 (2nd Cir. 2016), Cathleen Graziado [...]
On January 7, 2012, Officer Lawrence Reynolds of the Irvington, NJ Police Dept. was on an extra-duty assignment to provide security at a local Burger King. At about 11 p.m., township sergeants arrived at the restaurant to follow up on a patron’s report that the officer was fast asleep in his police cruiser in the [...]
The United States Department of Labor (USDOL) recently ruled in favor of Area 7 Workforce Development Board’s appeal to the department challenging the State of Ohio’s denial of initial area designation under the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). WIOA was signed into law in July, 2014 and supersedes the Workforce Investment Act of [...]
Recently, Senate Bill 301 was introduced in the Ohio Senate. This proposed legislation would enact a new provision in ORC §4113.12. Under this proposal, employers would be obligated to reasonably accommodate a pregnant employee so long as such accommodation does not create an undue hardship. Under the statute, a reasonable accommodation would include, but is [...]