The media was busy last week covering some federal-level decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit here in California.
The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the 9th Circuit precedent that, in Age Discrimination in Employment Act cases, the employer has the burden to prove their reasons for termination were lawful despite any disparate impact on employees over the age of 40. See Meacham v. Knolls 2008 U.S. LEXIS 5029 (June 19, 2008).
The Supremes also ruled that states may no longer restrict employers’ right to communicate with their employees about unionization. CalChamber issued an article covering this case last week.
The 9th Circuit issued a decision finding employees have a right to privacy over information held on third party servers -- as opposed to company owned and controlled servers. The employer in this case received information from a third party vendor that employees had transmitted through company-owned equipment. The court said the vendor should not have released that information to the employer. See Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Company 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 12766 (June 18, 2008).
Details regarding cases such as these, as well as helpful "What Should You Do?" information is provided by CalChamber through the bi-weekly newsletter HRCalifornia Extra. If you are not currently a subscriber, sign up now -- it's free. We will also be updating the privacy policy available to our members in light of the Quon decision.
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