In University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 45 MLC 136 (March 19, 2019) Hearing Officer Kendrah Davis found that UMASS Dartmouth retaliated against Donald King (King) for engaging in protected, concerted activity including filing a grievance and trying to enforce his contractual right to take FMLA leave. One day after filing a demand to arbitrate his FMLA [...]
The Appeals Court has affirmed a decision by the Civil Service Commission (“Commission”) upholding the termination of a police officer who made untruthful statements under oath even though the Commission's findings were not identical to the Town’s. Desmond v. Town of West Bridgewater, 94 Mass. App. Ct. 1122 (2019). The Town terminated Desmond for making [...]
On March 14, 2019, the Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) of the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued an opinion clarifying the DOL’s position on designating and taking leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). According to the opinion, employers may NOT delay the designation of FMLA-qualifying leave “even if the employee would prefer that the [...]
SJC determines that where there is a material difference between two positions in terms of opportunity to earn compensation, or in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment, an employer’s failure to grant a lateral transfer may constitute an adverse employment action under M.G.L. c. 151B.
© Ekaterina79 | Dreamstime.com The already restrictive Massachusetts law limiting the use of criminal offender record information (“CORI”) in the hiring process has become more restrictive. The “look back” for criminal misdemeanor convictions is now three (3) years instead of five (5), and Employers cannot ask about sealed or expunged records at all. [...]
A fired Pittsfield police officer who made statements in a report that were “intentionally misleading” but not false, was reinstated after the SJC ruled that an arbitrator’s ruling can only be overturned if an officer’s deception leads to false charges. City of Pittsfield, 2018 WL 4762406 (2018). In this case, the officer was fired for [...]
The Commission recently issued a decision that may impact promotional list(s) and upcoming promotions if you have a promotion list resulting from the November 2017 Fire Lieutenant and Captain promotional examination. In Borjeson et al v. HRD, the Commission ordered HRD to include “acting” time in the scoring of Education and Experience (E/E) for all candidates who passed the [...]
It was a windfall for Police Officers and Firefighters in the most recent session of the State Legislature and it came at the expense of Employers and consistency in the law. In our September Advisor, we told you about the law taking effect October 22 under which a Firefighter will get the benefit of the cancer presumption--something previously only [...]
It was a windfall for Police Officers and Firefighters in the most recent session of the State Legislature and it came at the expense of Employers and consistency in the law. In our September Advisor, we told you about the law taking effect October 22 under which a Firefighter will get the benefit of the [...]
The Commission recently issued a decision that may impact promotional list(s) and upcoming promotions if you have a promotion list resulting from the November 2017 Fire Lieutenant and Captain promotional examination. In Borjeson et al v. HRD, the Commission ordered HRD to include “acting” time in the scoring of Education and Experience (E/E) for all [...]