This information update summarizes public safety interest arbitration awards that have been issued since our update of July 2013. (See: Davis & Kuelthau “Arbitrators' Awards Arrive”, December 19, 2012, and “Arbitrators’ Awards Update”, July 18, 2013). Readers are encouraged to read the entire award for a complete understanding of each case....
Within the last four months, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed lawsuits against two (2) Wisconsin employers and one Minnesota employer alleging that each of the employers’ workplace wellness programs were in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC has been able to file such lawsuits because the...
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team As part of Educator Effectiveness, student teachers in Wisconsin must create and submit to peer review video clips of the student teacher engaged in teaching activities. The video clips will capture the student teacher interacting with K-12 students in the classrooms of Wisconsin public school...
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission’s administrative rules governing annual union certification elections are permanent as of July 1, 2014. The only difference between the previous temporary rules and the new permanent rules is the deadline for unions representing school district...
By D&K's Labor & Employment Team On July 31, 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Julaine K. Appling, et al. v. Scott Walker, which addressed the limited issue of whether Chapter 770 of the Wisconsin Statutes, the Domestic Partnership Law, violated Art. XIII, Sec. 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution, known as the (“Marriage Amendment”)....
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team On July 31, 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 (Act 10 or the Act) constitutional in its entirety. It may be hard to believe, but it has been over three years since Act 10 became law. Act 10, which prohibited virtually all collective bargaining for general municipal...
By Laurie E. Meyer On July 14, 2014, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued “Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues,” along with a Question and Answer document about the guidance and a Fact Sheet for small businesses. All are available on the EEOC’s website, www.eeoc.gov. This guidance...
President Obama directed the Department of Labor in March to come up with a way to update overtime pay rules to reflect the “changing nature of the American workplace” and to make them more” in keeping with the intention of the Fair Labor Standards Act." The review is intended to focus on the current “White Collar” exemptions which exclude...
By Bruce B. Deadman & Laurie E. Meyer On June 6, Federal District Judge Barbara Crabb held in Wolf et al v. Walker that the prohibition against same-sex marriages in Wisconsin found at Article XIII, § 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Initially,...
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team Access to personal Internet accounts by Wisconsin employers, educational institutions and landlords has been severely limited by a new law. As a result of 2013 Wisconsin Act 208, it is now illegal for a Wisconsin employer to request or require that an employee or applicant provide the employer...
