Showing 2 posts from July 2012.

District Court: Affordable care act does not Provide Private Cause of Action to Employee Denied Private Space for Expression of Breast Milk

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e., the ACA or “Obamacare”) requires employers to provide their employees with comfortable opportunities to express breast milk while at work. Specifically, the ACA mandates that employers must provide employees with unpaid breaks during which to express breast milk as well as “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion with coworkers and the public” in which to do so. 29 U.S.C. §207(r). A federal district court judge in Iowa ruled earlier this week, however, that an employee whose rights are violated under this provision may not sue her employer. Instead, she must file a claim directly with the Department of Labor, which is then charged with enforcing the rules. More ›

Eighth Circuit: Current Economic Downturn was an “Unforeseeable Business Circumstance” Under the WARN Act

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires qualifying employers to provide written notice at least 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. An exception to the Act exists, however, for “unforeseeable business circumstances.” Under that exception, no advance notice is required when the layoff event is the result of business circumstances caused by a sudden, dramatic, and unexpected condition. In its July 2, 2012, decision in United Steel Workers Local 2660 v. U.S. Steel Corp., the Eighth Circuit approved a shortened WARN Act notice for the employer, holding that the current economic downturn fell within that “unforeseeable business circumstances” exception. More ›