http://employment.law360.com/ The Newswire for Legal Professionals Copyright 2009 Portfolio Media, Inc. en-US http://employment.law360.com/images/headings/logo.gif http://employment.law360.com/ http://employment.law360.com/articles/131373 Whether it be “sexting” with a co-worker or getting “poked” by the boss on Facebook, so-called textual harassment in the workplace is a reality, experts say, and companies that don't keep pace with new technology can quickly find themselves in legal hot water. http://employment.law360.com/articles/131373 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132791 The Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., has been hit with a whistleblower action from a former employee alleging she was fired in retaliation for her repeated warnings that the Carle Hospital and the Carle Clinic had violated federal regulations intended to protect cancer patients enrolled as subjects in clinical trials. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132791 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132852 A federal judge has dismissed large swaths of a sealed lawsuit brought by beneficiaries of the Michigan-based Iron Workers Local 25 Pension Fund that seeks, among other things, to dissolve a fee agreement between the fund and law firm Sullivan Ward Asher & Patton PC worth $36 million. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132852 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132782 A federal judge has kept alive a suit filed on behalf of hundreds of poultry processors in Illinois who say their employers, JCG Industries Inc. and Koch Meat Co. Inc., failed to pay them overtime, but she threw out their claims under state minimum wage laws. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132782 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132751 Pilot Travel Centers LLC has agreed to pay $4.25 million to settle an opt-in class action accusing the truck stop chain of failing to pay overtime wages to a group of co-managers. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132751 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132806 Citing critical differences among the plaintiff blocs, a group of pension funds has urged a federal judge to reconsider a recent decision to consolidate actions accusing KeyCorp.’s investment management unit of channeling $186 million into Madoff feeder funds. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132806 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132815 Bankrupt GPX International Tire Corp. has sued two former employees, accusing them of misappropriating confidential information related to the auction of the bankruptcy estate's solid tire assets in order to gain an unfair advantage in the bidding process. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132815 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132685 A California appeals court has upheld the decertification of a class made up of hundreds of Tuesday Morning Inc. store managers who have accused the discount retailer of misclassifying them as exempt and failing to pay overtime wages. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132685 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132724 Less than three weeks ago the Chapter 11 trustee overseeing bankrupt real estate investment firm TMST Inc. objected to its emergency motion for approval of a wind-down employee incentive plan, but on Thursday he reversed course, saying not only that he supported the plan, but that the incentive payments should be increased. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132724 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132722 A fugitive former General Motors Corp. commodity manager has returned to the United States after evading custody for more than a year, pleading guilty Thursday in a kickback and fraud scheme involving the sale of bulk aluminum. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132722 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132715 Agricultural products producer Agrium Inc. has launched a lawsuit against a former sales representative and rival Blue Water Agronomy Inc., claiming the ex-employee misappropriated Agrium's trade secrets and breached his employment contract when he went to work for Blue Water. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132715 http://employment.law360.com/articles/131598 More than simply an effort to promote basic fairness, the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act would also serve the country's economic self-interest and improve public safety by providing civil rights protections to Americans on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, witnesses before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions told senators Thursday. http://employment.law360.com/articles/131598 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132635 The New York Supreme Court has sanctioned EpsteinBeckerGreen for its role in lodging an allegedly retaliatory suit over topless photos in order to harass Thompson Wigdor & Gilly LLP, which represents two women who brought sexual harassment claims against EpsteinBeckerGreen client Titan Capital LLC. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132635 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132522 A federal appeals court has refused to reverse the dismissal of a suit brought against Time Warner Inc. by a former executive who claimed he was fired in retaliation for making whistleblower claims regarding alleged financial irregularities. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132522 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132514 RadioShack Corp. has reached a settlement in a proposed class action brought by members of a company 401(k) plan who accused the electronics retailer of funneling their investments into an underperforming mutual fund. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132514 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132510 A judge has tossed all but one claim from a lawsuit brought by employees of an Alcan Inc. subsidiary alleging the aluminum producer unlawfully disseminated plant workers’ health care records among management. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132510 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132623 A federal judge has nixed a request by ComVest Investment Partners LLC to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from a layoff at a subsidiary, rejecting the private equity firm's argument that the plaintiffs failed to clear the necessary pleading hurdles. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132623 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132517 Former executives of bankrupt Thornburg Mortgage Inc. have sued XL Specialty Insurance Co. for allegedly breaching a policy agreement by failing to cover their defense costs in a case accusing them of improperly using Thornburg employees and resources to start a new company, SAF Financial Inc. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132517 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132569 Current and former city of Cincinnati employees who were members of Anthem Insurance Cos. Inc. have won class certification in a suit alleging that the mutual insurance company improperly handed their shares, worth about $55 million, to the city when the insurer demutualized. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132569 http://employment.law360.com/articles/132651 In a suit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor, a federal jury has found that Tyson Foods Inc. violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay production line workers for time spent donning and doffing compulsory safety gear. http://employment.law360.com/articles/132651