Retirement – Group 4 – Campus police
Where the executive director of public safety and chief of police at Bridgewater State University applied for Group 4 classification, the State Board of Retirement’s denial of that application should...
View ArticleUnemployment compensation – Vaccination – Credibility
Where a remand has been ordered regarding a claimant's asserted religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine in September 2021, her religious beliefs were sincere.
View ArticleEmployment – Fees – Discrimination
Where a hearing officer found the respondent State Police liable for discrimination on the basis of age and race, the complainant should be awarded counsel fees of $100,000.
View ArticleCivil practice – Abstention – Stay
Where a plaintiff filed a complaint to recover unpaid wages and other damages, the case should not be stayed under the abstention doctrine despite the prior filing of another putative class action.
View ArticleContract – Forum selection clause – Noncompete agreement
Where a plaintiff has brought suit against his former employer in the Western District of Texas, the case should be transferred to the District of Massachusetts under a forum selection clause in the...
View ArticleEducation – Tenure
Where a plaintiff has brought suit over the denial of his renewed tenure application at Harvard Business School, the complaint should be not be dismissed, as the plaintiff has plausibly alleged that...
View ArticleLabor – Preemption – NLRA
Where a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination decision holding a union liable for sex discrimination was upheld in Superior Court, that judgment should be affirmed despite the union’s...
View ArticleEmployment – FLSA – Collective certification
Where a defendant employer has moved to decertify a conditionally certified collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act, that motion should be allowed because the plaintiffs’ contention that...
View ArticleEmployment – Joint employer status – Wage Act
Where a defendant has moved to dismiss a class action brought pursuant to the Massachusetts Wage Act and related statutes, that motion must be allowed because the complaint does not plausibly allege a...
View ArticleEmployment – Independent contractor – Unjust enrichment and quantum meruit
Where a plaintiff has brought claims for unjust enrichment and quantum meruit in connection with services he provided to the defendant company that makes software for ultrasounds, the complaint should...
View ArticleEmployment – Wage Act
Where a defendant employer has moved to dismiss a Wage Act count, that motion should be allowed only with respect to the plaintiff's Wage Act claim for his August 2022 salary.
View ArticleEmployment – Misclassification – Drivers
Where the Fair Labor Division of the Attorney General's Office cited petitioners for misclassifying two employees as independent contractors for the purpose of evading G L.c. 151 requirements, the...
View ArticleRetirement – Credit – Elected official
Where the Worcester Regional Retirement System reduced a petitioner’s creditable service by 12 years, that decision must be vacated because the board was not presented with any “error” warranting...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental death – Remote work
Where an employee of a public school system was shot and killed when she answered the door to her home while working remotely, a decision by the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System to deny her...
View ArticleRetirement – Excess earnings – Statutory cap
Where the Winthrop Retirement Board required a petitioner to repay approximately $36,000 in excess earnings under G.L.c. 32, §91(b), that decision should be affirmed because the petitioner exceeded the...
View ArticleRetirement – Group 2 – ‘Wayward children’
Where the State Board of Retirement denied a petitioner’s application for reclassification to Group 2, that decision must be reversed because the petitioner has custody of youths committed to a “staff...
View ArticleLabor – Depositions
Where two unions alleging that the board of trustees of the University of Massachusetts violated G.L.c. 150E have filed a motion for permission to take depositions of two individuals identified as...
View ArticleLabor – Duty to bargain – Town meeting process
Where a union advocated for a warrant article at a special town meeting providing for a “one-time pandemic stipend and retention premium for educational support professionals,” the union’s efforts to...
View ArticleLabor – Transfer of job duties – Statute of limitations
Where a union filed a complaint alleging that the Boston School Committee violated Chapter 150E by eliminating bargaining unit positions and transferring their job duties to non-unit positions without...
View ArticleLabor – Duty to bargain – Unilateral change
Where the Andover School Committee removed allotted time from special education teachers’ schedules to perform case management duties, the school committee violated G.L.c. 150E by not providing the...
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