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Inquiry Finds Wrongdoing at Employment Agencies

November 13, 2008

About half of the employment agencies licensed in New York City have used illegal or deceptive practices, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in an announcement on Wednesday. In the most egregious cases, agencies have systematically swindled the city’s most vulnerable job seekers, the mayor said.

 

After an 18-month investigation, which included a review of the more than 330 licensed agencies in the city and undercover inspections by agents with video cameras, the Department of Consumer Affairs shut down three companies, collected $160,000 in fines and delivered $80,000 in restitution to clients. Many of the clients were immigrants looking for restaurant, domestic and manual-labor jobs as a “first foothold in the work force,” the mayor said.

 

The most common violations included requiring non-English speakers to sign contracts in English, demanding illegal upfront payments and withholding refunds from clients who did not receive jobs.

 

Read Article: New York Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Northwestern Mutual settles lawsuit

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for up to $92 million. The lawsuit accused Northwestern Mutual of failing to pay dividends on certain term life policies and using improper sales and marketing practices.

The lawsuit was filed four years ago by a customer in California who said the insurer’s sales materials misled him about whether dividends would be paid on term life and disability insurance. Northwestern Mutual denies the lawsuit’s allegations. Company spokeswoman Jean Towell says they decided to settle to avoid “the uncertainty and expense of litigation.”

 

Read Article: Chicago Tribune

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Wrongful Termination Suit Against American Apparel Heats Up

American Apparel on Wednesday defended itself against an ex-employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit — the latest legal trouble for the seller of all manner of cotton clothes.

Roberto Hernandez sued American Apparel Inc. and its chief executive, Dov Charney, in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week. The lawsuit claims he was fired a week after he refused to pad the company’s balance sheet to make the company more attractive to potential investors.

 

Hernandez’s lawyers said he worked in accounts payable and the IT department. The company disputed that he was an accountant, among other things.

“The allegations in this lawsuit are fictional, which the company believes represents a cynical attempt to extract phony leverage by Mr. Hernandez’s counsel, Keith Fink, who has been engaged with the company in other litigation for over three years,” the company argued in its statement.

 

Fink also represents a client in a separate sexual harassment lawsuit, one of several that have been filed against the company.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Katrina victims: Discrimination alleged in suit

Two civil rights groups and five New Orleans homeowners sued Louisiana’s hurricane rebuilding program Wednesday, saying it discriminates against more than 20,000 African Americans whose houses were damaged by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

 

The class-action suit, filed in federal court in Washington, alleges the Louisiana Road Home program awards smaller rebuilding grants to black homeowners than white homeowners. It says the state program’s formula for calculating the grants — approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — is biased against homes in predominantly black neighborhoods.

 

“HUD and Louisiana have failed to honor the noble promise of this program,” says civil rights lawyer Joseph Sellers, who represents the homeowners.

The Louisiana Recovery Authority, which administers the $11 billion housing redevelopment program, bases grants on the pre-storm value of the house or the rebuilding cost, whichever is less. The authority had awarded $7.3 billion by Oct. 28, its weekly report says.

 

Read Article: USA Today

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Jury awards LAPD officer $3.6 million in retaliation suit

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury on Wednesday awarded $3.6 million to a Los Angeles police officer who said he was demoted and suffered retaliation when he stood up for a sexually harassed colleague.

Officer Donald Bender was stripped of a rank and kicked out of the department’s canine bomb unit at LAX after he came to the defense of the only woman in the unit, who was subjected to lewd jokes and innuendoes and excluded from training sessions, according to Matthew McNicholas, Bender’s attorney.

 

Wednesday’s verdict marked the second multimillion-dollar jury verdict in the last three months resulting from retaliation claims. In September, a jury awarded $3.1 million to a Los Angeles Police Department officer who said he was penalized for reporting a superior’s racial epithets and possible embezzlement. Additionally, the City Council is scheduled to vote next week on yet another large payout to settle the case of Patricia Fuller, the female officer whom Bender said he supported. A person close to the matter said the figure was in the millions of dollars.

 

Read Article: Los Angeles Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

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