Womble Employment Law Blog

The Bureau of Labor Statistics ("BLS") released its annual summary of labor union membership for 2014 on January 23, 2015.  Overall union membership in the U.S. continues to decline.  Some interesting highlights from the BLS information: The total labor union membership rate (public and private sector) was 11.1%, down slightly from 2013.  The BLS reports that about 14.6 million workers were union members in 2014. The union membership rate in the private sector decreased to 6.2%.  The rate for the public sector was much higher, at 35.7%, but was also down from 2013. North Carolina had the lowest union membership rate in the U.S., at just 1.9% (down from 3% in 2013).  South Carolina was the second lowest at 2.2%. New York had the highest membership rate, at 24.6%, followed by Alaska (22.8%) and Hawaii (21.8%). Younger workers have lower union membership rates.  For workers ages 25-34, the rate is 9.5%, as compared to 14.1% for workers ages 55-64.  (And the rates for both

The DOL's highly anticipated proposed rule to amend the FLSA exemptions for administrative, executive, and professional employees is reportedly coming in February 2015.  For more details, check out our post on Womble's Fair Labor Standards Act Law Blog, which you can find here .

This week, a former airline employee is to be sentenced for his part in a 14-year scheme that defrauded Delta Air Lines, and its predecessor, Northwest Airlines, out of $36 Million. An FBI investigation revealed that a long-time employee of Northwest and Delta conspired with another person to obtain payment from the airline by submitting invoices for services that were never provided. According to published reports, Paul Anderson was a company manager who had worked for Northwest then Delta since 1979. Michael Yedor was not an employee of the airline, but owned a company called Airborne Voice and Data. The two came up with a plan to defraud the airline, which they carried out between 1999 and 2013. The scheme, which the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case in Atlanta called “astounding,” worked like this: In order to receive payment for the false invoices, Yedor sent the invoices to Anderson, who had the authority to approve them for payment. Once Anderson approved the invoices,

Religious discrimination continues to be a hot topic for employers.  As savvy HR professionals know, an important religious discrimination  case will be heard in the United States Supreme Court this term involving the EEOC's suit against a company over the duty to make accommodations to dress and appearance policies.  On January 13, 2015, the EEOC announced that it has filed a new religious discrimination suit against Triangle Catering, LLC in the Eastern District of North Carolina.  The EEOC's complaint alleges that the company employed a Rastafarian, who wore a small cap as part of his religious practices.  When the employee refused to remove the cap while working, the complaint claims the employee was fired.  While we watch these cases play out this year, these EEOC enforcement actions underscore the value of businesses taking the time to review their policies--and their practices--on the accommodation of religious beliefs and expression in the workplace.