I am back! I have just realised that it’s been over a month since my last post so I decided to drop by and mention a few things.
First of all I have to tell everyone how excited I am about Motion City Soundtracks new album titled “My Dinosaur Life” which is due to release on January 19th 2010!
Secondly my most inspirational artist Joe Ledbetter is designing all of the album art, what more can I ask for!!!

Pre-ordering became available earlier from the motion city store and a Deluxe Edition was available for those hardcore motion city fans at a price of 60 bucks.

Deluxe Edition includes:
Hardbound 9×9 custom book to hold the below contents
-Six double sided 7″ picture discs featuring custom Joe Ledbetter artwork for each track
-Signed Pulp Fiction style lyric book
-Full length 12 track CD
-Exclusive bonus CD (Features 5 alt/acoustic versions – including 1 unreleased track)

In my opinion that 70% of me wanted the Deluxe Edition for the Joe Ledbetter artwork so off course I went through the process of trying to pre-order it, except to be greeted with “Offer is for United States customers only” which I got pretty annoyed!
The anger finally came to an end later on when motion city tweeted saying “The availability of the deluxe edition of My Dinosaur Life internationally will be known soon.” hopefully this is good news that all the other fans that don’t live in the United States will get the chance to get their hands on the Deluxe Edition.

If you are interested on any of the following news talked about on this post then you can check out the following websites.
http://www.motioncitysoundtrack.com/home
http://www.mydinosaurlife.com/
http://www.joeledbetter.com/

On September 30, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear Lewis v. City of Chicago (7th Cir. 2008), a case that possesses shades of both the recent Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber case and the Ricci v. DeStefano cases.  It is similar to Ledbetter primarily because the primary issue deals with the applicability of the statute of limitations in cases of discrimination.  The similarity with Ricci is more contextual in that the case involves firefighters seeking positions and unhappy with the selection process.

In Lewis, the Seventh Circuit held that a group of African American firefighter applicants could not proceed with their discrimination claims against the City of Chicago because the discrimination charge they filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 300 days and was therefore untimely.

The Lewis case gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to answer two important questions about the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (“the Act”). First, whether the courts will extend coverage beyond cases of pay discrimination. And second, whether the Act applies to disparate impact cases (that is, cases involving claims that an employment practice or policy that appears neutral on its face actually affects a protected group more harshly than an unprotected group).

In Lewis, about 26,000 entry-level firefighters took a written aptitude test to determine their eligibility for employment with the City of Chicago Fire Department. The plaintiffs’ test scores placed them in the “qualified” category. However, only applicants whose test scores placed them in the “well qualified” category were given the jobs. The City began hiring applicants from the “well qualified” group several months after the test scores were disclosed to the applicants. The plaintiffs sued the City, claiming the aptitude test had an adverse impact on African American applicants. The plaintiffs claimed their charge was timely because it was filed within 300 days of the date the City hired the first applicant in the “well qualified” group.

Advancing a position similar to that of the plaintiff in Ledbetter, the plaintiffs in Lewis argued that the charge filing period began to run not when the test results were communicated but when the city began using the test results to hire applicants. The Seventh Circuit rejected this argument, holding that the discrimination was complete when the tests were scored and the discrimination was discovered when the applicants learned the test results. Instead, the Seventh Circuit held that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit was untimely because they filed their EEOC charge more than 300 days after they learned of their test results.

The Seventh Circuit’s opinion follows very closely the Ledbetter analysis, which was subsequently reversed through the passage of the Act. Now that the Act has overruled Ledbetter, it is not clear how the Supreme Court will evaluate the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Lewis. Under the Act, at least for purposes of discrimination in compensation based on a theory of disparate treatment (that is, intentional discrimination), discrimination occurs (1) when the discriminatory practice is adopted, (2) when an employee becomes subject to the discriminatory practice, or (3) when the discriminatory practice affects the employee. Given the expansive language and intent of the Act, the Court may find that it applies to the plaintiffs’ claims in Lewis.

Undoubtedly, the impending Lewis decision will have a significant effect on employers and be another major decision looming on the horizon.  The Seventh Circuit is not the first to address whether the Act expands beyond the scope of pay discrimination. I’ll keep you updated!

Hi!

Those who have been waiting and checking for daily updates on my blog then your wait is finally over! I have to admit that I’ve recently been extremely lazy, lost and whatever else, but now it’s time for me to re-group my arms, my legs, my head and focus on what I am going to do in the next few months.

First of all I want to say that I really want to attend the Joe Ledbetter show in London on Saturday 10th October but this depends if I could get time off work, Joe is one of my all time favourite artists so if your interested in any way then check out his stuff at www.joeledbetter.com.

Moving on I want to talk about my art side of things which is developing a set of unique characters which will represent me.  I believe I have finally twisted and tweaked the original characters to something I would call acceptable, the next step is to select a few characters that will suit my first ever theme ”Creatures of the House” which I will develop a series of illustrations for.

A few days ago my TV/monitor failed to turn on and is now out of action until it gets repaired, for now my work will be done on a 17inch Compaq monitor which I stole from my sister but this shouldn’t hold me back from doing my work.
Lately a few inspirations sprung to mind when I was looking through some magazines and a few from just my surroundings, whether they have any direct relation to the first theme is un-clear but I have thought up some crazy designs which will hopefully interest the viewers, some of this work is available at:

• Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/11fires?cropsuccess=#/11fires?ref=profile
• DeviantART – http://fallen1502.deviantart.com/
• Photoshop Creative – http://www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/Fallen1502

On the more realistic side of things I am still looking for a full time job, looking more harder than usual so thats why it deserves a mention now to bring things closer to time would be tomorrow which I am attending Open coffee then twestival and finishing the night off in the Empire with Thrones of Roll.  A few days ago I entered a twitter competition to win a hoodie but didn’t think much about it, only to find out that I was the winner, I’m still pretty psyched about winning since I’ve never really won anything in similar competitions, all I gota say is thanks baseacid and for those who are interested check out www.baseacid.com or follow them on twitter.com/baseacid.

So, why Blog about discrimination in the workplace?  One of the more exciting areas of the law these days is discrimination law, thanks in part to President Obama. On January 29, 2009 President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, a law designed to close a gaping loophole in Title VII Law.  A review of the law before and After Lilly Ledbetter is found below.  

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of  1964/Equal Pay Act

Title VII is the Federal Statute that makes it unlawful for an Employer to discriminate against certain classes of people.  Pursuant to Title VII your employer violates the law when he or she 

1.  Fails or refuses to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminates against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or

2. Limits, segregates, or classifies his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Title VII only applies to employers with 15 or more employees.  However, many states have their own laws prohibiting discrimination, and they may have an even lower threshold of employees in order for the law to apply to your employer.  For Example, New Jersey has The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJ LAD).  

Sexual Harassment also falls under federal and state civil rights law.  

Federal Law requires that you proceed at first via the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) and there are some pretty strict time restraints in terms of how long you can wait before reporting Title VII violations to the EEOC’s attention. Initially, Title VII required that an employee formally charge his employer via the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission no later than 180 days from when the offense first occurred. An Employee had to follow this procedure if he ever wanted to sue his employer for the violation.

That meant that if you only learned about a violation after the 180 day statute of limitations was exhausted, you were just plain out of luck.That’s because you can’t bring a Title VII action in Federal Court unless you’ve already charged your employer via the EEOC.  

However, that aspect of the law is presently changing, and the changes just may be monumental.  It’s precisely this new change that prompted me to write this blog. 

LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT OF 2009:  President Obama Rights a Wrong

The 180 day statute for Federal discrimination law cases was incredibly unfair.  Just ask Lilly Ledbetter.  You can read a summary of her case before the Supreme Court of the United States here.  Poor Lilly was preparing to retire after working for Goodyear for many  years when she discovered that she was receiving considerably less in pay than her male counterparts.

Unfortunately, Lilly Ledbetter didn’t learn about this discriminatory pay scheme until well after the 180 day period for reporting it had expired.  You see, pursuant to Title VII, the 180 days ran from the day the discriminatory decision was made, not from when Lilly Ledbetter found out about it. 

Even as a layperson, I’m sure you can see the inherent unfairness in this statute of limitations.  Employers don’t say to you “Hey, I’ve decided to pay Earl more than you today because he’s a man”.  In fact, I’m sure employers are savvy enough to know the practice of paying men more than women is illegal, and therefore they must go to considerable lengths to keep it all hush hush. 

So how’s a woman like Lilly Ledbetter to file a charge with the EEOC within that pesky 180 day period?  She can’t.  Or….at least she couldn’t.  The Supreme Court determined that Lilly Ledbetter missed the boat. She didn’t file with the EEOC in time, and therefore her case was time barred.  

The absurdity of this decision prompted an uproar from most anyone in the legal community with common sense.  The statute was just plain wrong in this scenario.  So what happened?  Congress closed the loophole, drafting a bill that reformulated this 180 day requirement.  When Obama signed it, Lilly Ledbetter was standing right by his side. Of course, it’s too late for Lilly Ledbetter, but it’s not too late for countless Americans who are receiving discriminatory paychecks each pay period since the new legislation passed.

How did the law change?  Well, the law reset the 180 day statute of limitations for reporting and charging an employer through the EEOC.  The law now says that an employee has 180 days to report a violation and charge his employer with the EEOCstarting from every discriminatory paycheck received.  That means every time someone like Ledbetter gets a paycheck, the statute is recharged.  A person who suffers from a violation of the new Ledbetter law can seek past wages for two years prior to the date of the EEOC charge.  

Moreover, all the other portions of the Civil Rights laws will apply, such as penalties for retaliating against an employee for reporting a violation to the EEOC, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees and costs. 

The next few years will prove to be fascinating as the Courts begin to apply and interpret the Ledbetter law.  How will this statutory scheme affect other kinds of discrimination cases?  What other amendments and statutes are coming down the pike?Only time will tell.

As national unemployment numbers grow, these are harrowing days for employees and we are quite possibly at the beginning of a new era in employment discrimination law.     This blog will explore the changes in employment discrimination as they occur, following new cases and possibly new legislation as it occurs.  I hope you’ll all join me as we watch this new era unfold before us.

An attorney admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey, Samantha A. Niclas handles varying types of workplace discrimination law cases, in addition to handling personal injury matters.  

Please note that this blog is intended for information purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice of any kind.  If you have a legal question or issue, please consult a lawyer.

For workplace discrimination questions within the State of New York and New Jersey please contact Samantha A. Niclas, Esq:

New York
SAMANTHA A. NICLAS, ESQ.
GEOGHAN COHEN & BONGIORNO, LLC
250 Mineola Boulevard
Mineola, New York 11501
(516) 741-2405
(212) 465-0600

New Jersey: 
SAMANTHA A. NICLAS, ESQ.
GEOGHAN, COHEN & BONGIORNO, LLC. 
201 Rock Road
Glen Rock, New Jersey 07452
(201) 493-7125 

Email:
Samantha@gcb-law.net

What was always a long shot did not pan out as the Supreme Court just issued its decision in AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen (S.Ct. 5/18/09) [pdf] without giving any guidance on how it would view the Lily Ledbetter Act. At issue in Hulteen was the present effect of a seniority system which treated pregnancy adversely that was used only before the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was enacted, although it had ongoing consequences.  

The Supreme Court held, in a 7-2 decision written by retiring Justice David Souter, that the employer’s actions concerning the seniority system was not discriminatory.  The basic reason is that when the decision was made, seniority systems had their own treatment under Title VII, which recognizes their importance in maintaining stability. That was the same reason the Lily Ledbetter Act was not relevant, even though the Supreme Court had allowed supplemental briefing on its potential impact. Quoting from the statute, the Court answered plaintiff’s argument that it revived her cause of action:

For the reasons already discussed, AT&T’s pre-PDA decision not to award Hulteen service credit for pregnancy leave was not discriminatory, with the consequence that Hulteen has not been “affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice.” §3(A), 123 Stat. 6.

In a spirited defense that was really more of an attack on the original Gilbert decision that led to the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act than anything, Justice Ginburg’s dissent (joined by Justice Breyer) does not even mention the Ledbetter Act.

Many commentators have speculated that if the case had gone the other way, it could have had broad ramifications.  However, given its narrow holding, it seems unlikely to be very important beyond its impact on the parties.

With California’s unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, jobseekers have to look harder than ever these days. For those lucky enough to receive a job offer, many are finding the offer to come with a lower starting pay than in previous years. And while businesses are suffering too in today’s economy, employers should beware that taking advantage of the competitive job market to lower starting salaries can lead to inadvertent pay discrimination.

Under the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the recently enacted Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, employers are prohibited from paying one gender more than the other for performing essentially the same work. Today, intentional pay discrimination is fairly rare. Nonetheless, experts agree that women today earn on average only 0.78 cents for every dollar earned by a man in an equivalent position. So, how does it happen?

Isolating the cause of pay gaps isn’t easy. Historical pay differences, traditional job allocation, and disparate educational opportunities are all factors. But, so are haphazard pay practices. For example, Lily Ledbetter—whose Supreme Court case prompted Congress to pass the Fair Pay Act earlier this year—began earning less than her male counterparts more than twenty years before she filed her lawsuit. Ledbetter’s employer simply never acted to remedy the pay gap, and may not have even taken note that a pay disparity existed.

Pay gaps can also emerge in hard economic times, when employers lower starting salaries in response to a competitive job market. If a man hired a year ago earns significantly more than a woman hired today to perform essentially the same work, and having similar backgrounds, the result may ultimately be a pay discrimination lawsuit. While the real motive for the woman’s lower starting salary is to take advantage of the current market and reduce overall costs, the difference in the two workers’ salaries can still appear to be discriminatory.

Even though men and women alike may be more willing nowadays to accept lower starting salaries, taking the time to ensure that pay disparities don’t arise along gender lines will help protect against future legal action.

Are You Giving Equal Pay For Equal Work?

Lilly Ledbetter was a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. employee in Alabama who sued the company over alleged pay bias. She lost her 2007 battle in the U.S. Supreme Court, but now she’s won the war in Congress.

Two brand-new federal laws will boost employee protections against gender-based pay bias:

• The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 overturns the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Ledbetter case and gives employees more time to sue.
• The Paycheck Fairness Act protects employees who share salary information with their co-workers, stiffens penalties for employers caught engaging in unfair pay practices, and opens many new loopholes for plaintiff’s attorneys.

The Fair Pay Act has just been signed into law by President Obama; the Paycheck Fairness Act is expected to become law any day now. The time to prepare is now. Join us on March 23 for an in-depth audio conference all about these two new federal laws and what they mean for California employers. Our speaker—an experienced California employment law attorney who’s dealt with many fair pay cases—will discuss proactive strategies for auditing your current pay practices and reducing your legal risks.

• The basic components of each law—what they mean for California employers and how they’ll affect your workforce
• How to conduct an extensive in-house audit of your existing compensation policies and pay levels to identify and rectify possible inequities
• Best practices for monitoring pay levels and practices going forward to prevent future equal-pay claims
• The hidden loopholes and danger zones in each law that could make it easier for your workers to file pay-related claims and lawsuits
• What you can do right now to protect your organization against pay-related disputes and litigation
• The steps you should take when employees complain about perceived pay inequities

Register now »

More information »

At Last

Beethoven’s Last Night

Godsmack

Jackie Brown: Music From The Miramax Motion Picture (1997 Film)

What Time Is It?

Surrender

The Wiggles – Wiggledancing (Live in the USA)

Ledbetter Heights

Nickel Creek

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As predicted, courts are interpreting the one-month old Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 as covering all adverse employment actions affecting wages, not just pay-setting decisions or policies.  Based on two cases decided within a week of the bill’s signing, adverse employment actions related to demotions, promotions and pensions are clearly within the scope of the new law.

In Bush v Orange County Corr Dep’t, the Middle District of Florida cited the newly enacted legislation in holding that four African-American nurses timely challenged their allegedly race-based demotions, which resulted in reductions in pay and occurred 16 years before they filed charges with the EEOC. The employer’s untimeliness argument was deemed valid “prior to last week,” the trial court noted, finding the plaintiffs’ Title VII claims were no longer time-barred.

In Gilmore v Macy’s Retail Holdings, a federal court in New Jersey acted on its own motion and held the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act applied retroactively to an employee’s Title VII claim that she was denied the opportunity to fill in for an absent sales associate and thereby was deprived of potential bonus pay on sales of more expensive products. The Act provides that an aggrieved person may obtain back pay for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge where the unlawful employment practices occurring during the charge-filing period are “similar or related” to the unlawful employment practice occurring outside the time for filing a charge.

In AT&T Corp v Hulteen (Dkt No 07-543), the U.S. Supreme Court will decide is whether AT&T’s pre-PDA policy of calculating credit for pregnancy leave differently than other kinds of temporary disability leave was discriminatory.  The employees recently filed a supplemental brief with the High Court, arguing the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act resolves the issue in their favor.

Last December, my colleague Harper Jean Tobin noted the similarity between the Supreme Court’s discredited decision in Ledbetter, and another case now before the Court:

Yet even as Ledbetter faces the likelihood of being overturned by the incoming Congress, AT&T and the Bush Administration are asking the high court to extend its erosion of civil rights laws even further in a case called AT&T v. Hulteen.

The plaintiffs are Nora Hulteen and three other employees who received reduced retirement benefits because of pregnancy leave they took in the 1960s and early 1970s. Along with other major employers, AT&T changed the way it calculated service credit for pregnancy leave in 1979 following the enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, but continued to award benefits on a discriminatory basis to those who had taken leave previously. (The parties dispute whether pregnancy-based discrimination was already illegal before the PDA, but that’s not really central to the case.) The company is now set to argue before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that these women can’t sue because any discrimination occurred decades ago when they took pregnancy leave, not when they were awarded lesser retirement benefits.

Sound familiar? As in Ledbetter, the core issue in this case is whether the “discriminatory act” will be defined in a reductive, technical way (focusing on the recording of credits in a database decades ago) or a more pragmatic one (focusing on the award of a smaller pension). AT&T argues that the discrepancy in benefits today is a mere “effect” of past discrimination, just as Lily Ledbetter’s receipt of lesser paychecks than her male coworkers was deemed to be a mere “effect” of past decisions.

But, of course, the “incoming Congress” is now just, The Congress, and President Obama just signed a bill overruling Ledbetter.  So Nora Hulteen should be in the clear, correct?  Unfortunately, that depends on whether the Supreme Court decides not to ignore the will of Congress for the third time in a row.

In 1989, the Supreme Court held in Lorance v. AT&T Technologies that women who were laid off because of a discriminatory seniority system waited too long to challenge that system, even though they took action almost immediately after the lay-offs.  Two years later, Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which overruled Lorance and restored accountability to companies that discriminate against their employees.

If this story sounds familiar, that’s because it is.  The issue in Lorance is almost identical to the issue presented in Ledbetter.  Yet the Supreme Court not only ignored the fact that Lorance is no longer good law when it ruled against Lilly Ledbetter, it expressly relied on Lorance in tossing Ledbetter out of court!

When the Supreme Court ignored Congress’ intent in Lorance, Congress responded swiftly and decisively, but the Supreme Court ignored that response in Ledbetter.  Congress responded again saying, “no, we really meant it when we overruled Lorance the first time.”  Hulteen will now tell us if two spankings are enough to convince John Roberts and Co. to behave themselves.

I’ve blogged before about how companies trap or trick their customers and employees into signing away their power to hold the company accountable if it breaks the law.  Because of a series of wrongful-decided Supreme Court decisions that rewrote a 60 year-old law in the 1980s, companies can refuse to do business with you, and your employer can fire you, unless you agree to replace your right to go to court with a biased, privatized justice system.

Writing in The Nation, Kia Franklin of Tort Deform warns that if Congress does not overturn these wrongly-decided cases, then women like Lilly Ledbetter will still have no way to fight back against discrimination in the workplace:

Despite the new Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, corporations can still get away with employment discrimination and other harmful action through binding mandatory arbitration agreements in which Americans sign away their right to resolve disputes in a court of law. Nestling arbitration clauses in the fine print of credit card agreements, patient consent forms and employment contracts is a deceitful tactic used against an estimated 30 million Americans nationwide. It sends disputes between a person and a corporation to a closed-door, unregulated resolution process hidden from outside view.

Congress and President Obama should provide a much stronger check against corporate power. They can do that by passing The Arbitration Fairness Act (AFA), first introduced in 2007 by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA).

Arbitration does not grant the three main safeguards guaranteed by our public courts: fairness, accountability and neutrality. The corporation chooses a private individual–who is not necessarily a judge or lawyer–to hear and decide the case. Corporations are repeat customers whose appeasement generates steady business. Studies show that arbitrators have financial reason to rule in their favor. Corporate clients get preferential treatment; regular people do not get anything resembling neutral decision-making.

Kia is right.  If I break the law, I suffer a consequence.  Corporations shouldn’t be any different.

Here is Stephen Colbert’s take on Lilly Ledbetter.

The world didn’t end with this piece of legislation, although some HR writers are arguing that it’s the end of the world as we know it. Check out Lance’s blog for more information on how to be a decent HR professional and focus on the things that matter — creating a good workforce with the right priorities.

Today the United States Supreme Court upheld a ruling on the statute of limitations. The case in a question- a double homicide, kidnapping, rape, molestation, embezzlement, and grant theft auto, was originally brought by the New York City District Attorney against “John Doe” late last year.

On October 1st, 2008, Mr. Doe, allegedly rushed into the Federal Reserve Bank of Manhattan wielding semi-automatic weapons. Apparently Mr. Doe had been embezzling money from various charities, and was seeking to destroy the financial records of the money transfers to his account.

After storming through the front door, and being told by the teller that she “didn’t have access” to his records, he shot and killed her. The security guard, too fell victim to Mr. Doe, as he unleashed a barrage of bullets at him. Mr. Doe, unsatisfied with his inability to erase his records, in a fit of rage demanded that the manager empty the contents of 6 drawers into his canvas bag, before ordering the manager out of the bank and onto the street at gunpoint.

Once he was outside the bank, Mr. Doe then pulled over a vehicle, firing 3 shots through the windshield at the elderly driver, Ms. Patterson, an 80-year old resident of Manhattan, who suffered minor injuries, described the criminal as “a crazy young man”. Authorities say, that Mr. Doe then forced the manager to drive to his home, where Mr. Doe then allegedly raped and molested various members of the manager’s family, whose names are not being released at this time.

The saga finally ended just over a month later, in November when authorities were able to track down and arrest Mr. Doe, following a tip from a neighbor who was worried by the the “bloodied clothing” she saw Mr. Doe disposing of. The various victims of Mr. Doe’s crime scheme were later shocked though, when the NY District Attorney’s case against Mr. Doe was thrown out of court by the judge, because the “statute of limitations bars the bringing of any civil or criminal charges against Mr. Doe; despite the seemingly heinous nature of his actions”.

It turns out that New York had an old, obscure law on the books that prevents the bringing of civil or criminal charges by the state against any resident for actions that took place over 30 days prior to their arrest. This little known law, referred to as Code 47-32, is an egregious example of statute of limitations gone wrong.

Despite the lives he destroyed on that fateful October day, Mr. Doe is apparently set to walk free next week, with the Supreme Court ordering not only his immediate release, but also compensation for the time he was “unlawfully incarcerated”. As charges cannot be brought against Mr. Doe, authorities have cautioned against using the 35-year old’s name in print, as his lawyers are expected to bring a defamation suit against the state.

Okay, so if you’ve read this far, you are likely floored by the absurdity of a known criminal who wreaked so much havoc through his actions, being allowed to walk free after 30 days because the “statute of limitations” have expired.

Before you get up in arms, I caution you, you will not find this story elsewhere online because I made it up. But, before you put your arms down, I say to you this is simply an exaggeration to demonstrate a very real problem with our judicial system.

Today on NPR I heard a story about a rabbi who molested a young boy twice a week for over two months. Years later when the boy told his parent about the abuse, the parents confront the school officials, who agreed to fire the rabbi.  However, 1 week after the boy turned 23, and the statute of limitations for civil or criminal suit expired, the school hired the rabbi back. I was dumbfounded by the absurdity of this, and then I thought of Lilly Ledbetter.

At the signing of the new anti-wage discrimination bill, I was struck by how ridiculous the whole situation was. There, on national T.V., at the White House, the President of the United States of America acknowledged that Goodyear had wronged her, broke the law even, but that there was nothing he, or anyone else could do about it (the supreme court really threw out her case due to the statute of limitations).

How can our system of justice protect wrong doers from prosecution simply because of a statute of limitations? If someone commits a crime and hurts another, it makes no sense to release them from liability because a certain amount of time has passed. Essentially the message here is- breaking the law is a crime- unless you get away with it for “x” years.

While the story I told above is a dramitization, the implications are real. We need to reform our penal code to protect victims of crimes, not the perpetrators.

-kd-

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, keeping a campaign pledge, signed a law Thursday to make it easier to sue employers for pay discrimination.
In a ceremony in the East Room of the White House flanked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, Obama spoke as Lilly Ledbetter – a former Goodyear Tire manager from Alabama, whose case inspired the new law – stood beside him.The data, analyzed by CNSNews.com, showed that in the period from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008, Obama paid women on his Senate staff an annual average salary of $44,953.21. That was $12,472 less than the $57,425 average annual salary that then-Sen. Obama paid men.

President Barack Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The legislation makes it easier for workers to file pay-bias complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The law arose in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that said the deadline for workers to file a pay-bias complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is 180 days from the date the decision on their pay is made and communicated to them. Some lawmakers found this deadline too restrictive because many workers don’t discover they were discriminated against in pay until long after the action is taken.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to clarify that the 180-day deadline restarts each time an employee receives a paycheck that reflects past discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.

Specifically, the legislation states that “an unlawful employment practice occurs … when a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice is adopted, when an individual becomes subject to a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, or when an individual is affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid, resulting in whole or in part from such a decision or other practice.”

The legislation also amends the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to include the provision quoted above.

Once Obama signed the legislation, it took “effect as if enacted on May 28, 2007 and applies to all claims of discrimination in compensation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (29 U.S.C. 621 et seq.), title I and section 503 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and sections 501 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, that are pending on or after that date.”

Why did lawmakers choose that date? It was the day before the Supreme Court ruling.

The Supreme Court case involved Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. At first, her pay was in line with the salaries of men, but over time, a gap developed between her salary and the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and was paid $3,727 per month. By comparison, the pay of the lowest paid male area manager was $4,286 per month.

Ledbetter sued in 1998, alleging disparate treatment. The company argued that the suit should be dismissed because Ledbetter failed to file a complaint with the EEOC within 180 days of the previous pay decisions that Ledbetter alleges were discriminatory.

However, Ledbetter argued that the clock on the 180-day deadline restarted after each paycheck that reflected past discrimination. She claimed that each time the company issued her a paycheck, the company demonstrated an intent to discriminate and violated Title VII. The majority of the Supreme Court rejected her arguments, saying Ledbetter should have filed a complaint after each pay decision.

Just today, Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration act.  To hear the conservative pundits, you would have thought that this would have been the end of the world.  I guess for those employers who adhere to the notion that women should not be paid as much as men, it is. 

I honestly cannot believe that the conservatives would think that the supreme court’s decision in the Ledbetter case was just.  They ruled in the favor of Goodyear on the technicality where the decision to discriminate was more than 180 days before she found out about it.  In other words, if a company is able to keep discrimination secret for six months, employees would not have a case.

The entirety of the republican’s opposition to this law is the fact that it opens businesses to law suits.  As I have said earlier, any business that pays a woman less, deserves to get sued (assuming she does the same job and gives the same level of performance). 

They act like that the concept of paying someone based on merit is now dead.  This law does not kill that concept.  Companies are still free to base pay on merit.  I just means that if a company’s idea of merit includes race or gender, the chance of getting off on a technicality is reduced. 

I think that there are some concerns with this legislation though.  One can make the argument that if someone gets benefits after they have left the company (such as a pension), the clock will continuously reset.   I am sure that some sleazy lawyer might be able to make that case.

My advice to companies in light of this new law, do not discriminate.  Really, this is not 1950.  Also, keep all documentation on your wage decisions.  If you choose to pay someone less because of performance, make sure that it is documented.  Of course, this is documentation that you should already be keeping.

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007) 550 U.S. 618,  Congress passed Senate Bill 181 (the “Lilly Ledbetter Fairy Pay Act of 2009″). There have been a number of attempts to legislatively alter the Ledbetter decision, which held that the statute of limitations for filing a Title VII charge of employment discrimination with the EEOC begins when the discrete discriminatory act occurs.

In Ledbetter’s case, she claimed she was paid a lower salary than her male counter-parts.  Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. avoided liability by establishing the fact that Ledbetter’s salary had been lower than her male counter-parts for years.  Since discrimination claims must be filed with the EEOC within 180 days of the discrimination (or 300 days in some states), the court held that Ms. Ledbetter failed to timely exhaust her administrative remedies despite the fact that the consequences of discriminatory pay practice continued.  In essence, the court felt that the discriminatory act occured when Ms. Ledbetter initially received the lower pay and the fact that the lower pay led to lower raises over the next several years creating an even greater disparity was insufficient to start a new violation.  Employee advocates dissatisfied with the decision immediately began petitioning the legislature to amend Title VII.

Senate Bill 181 amends Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, to clarify that a unlawful discriminatory compensation decisions occur each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision.  The bill willmake it unlawful each time an employer writes a paycheck that gives some workers less than others, because of race, sex, disability, religion or national origin.  The bill still needs to be approved by President Obama.  Once signed into law, it will apply to bias claims that filed on or after May 28, 2007.

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Congress Passes Legislation Overturning Holding of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber: The Associated Press reports that Congress has finally passed legislation overturning Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber:  Congress sent the White House Tuesday what is expected to be the first legislation that President Barack Obama signs into law, a bill that makes it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination, even if the discrimination has prevailed for years, even decades.  White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama would sign the bill, a top priority for labor and women’s rights groups, Thursday during a public ceremony in the East Room.  The bill is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said a person must file a claim of discrimination within 180 days of a company’