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LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent. The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work. The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.

<p>Every January, descendants of Confederate soldiers gather in Wyman Park to...lay wreaths at the monument to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, legendary generals of the Confederate States of America. And afterward, for 20 years now, everyone has gone across the street to the Johns Hopkins University for coffee and refreshments...Hopkins has informed the Maryland divisions of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans that it will not rent space to them.</p>

Gas stations should be allowed to charge any price they want. Stop and think. There are gas stations all around us. All of them havesimilar products and must compete with one another. We have regulations and agencies that watch to make sure there are no cooperative arrangements among stations. Why, then, are price-gouging laws such a bad idea? First, the price restriction interferes with market forces. For example, gas stations anticipate a lack of supply of gas over the next couple of weeks because of the hurricane in the gulf. They raise their gas prices to allocate the remaining supplies...

Christian and other religious groups opposed to abortion were allowed to advertise on Google for the first time from today, after the search engine capitulated in the face of a legal challenge. Google had banned pro-life religious groups from buying adverts against search terms such as “abortion” and “abortion help” but was forced to abandon its policy after it was accused of breaching equalities legislation. The challenge was brought by the Christian Institute, a cross-denominational pressure group, who said that Google’s change of heart was an acknowledgement of the rights of everybody to hold an opinion on the subject. Mike...

Mike Koelzer Grand Rapids, Sep 16, 2008 / 12:24 am (CNA).- Citing ethical objections and the potential of some contraceptive drugs to cause abortions, some pharmacies in the United States have decided not to carry contraceptives. One such store is Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, owned by Mike Koelzer, who explained his decision not to carry contraceptives in an e-mail interview with CNA. Koelzer explained that he stopped supplying birth control pills because, as is written on the drugs’ packaging inserts, such pills decrease the lining of the mother’s uterus. This makes the womb less hospitable for a...

Muslim cabbies whose religious beliefs go against driving passengers who carry alcohol have lost another round in Minnesota courts. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday against the cabbies' latest attempt to block penalties from being imposed when they refuse to transport passengers because they're carrying alcoholic beverages.

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For women struggling with infertility, the unpredictable and time-consuming treatment process can wreak havoc with work schedules, causing conflicts with bosses and triggering reprisals or layoffs. Now, a federal appeals court has come down on the side of women, fortifying legal protections on the job. In the first decision of its kind at the federal appeals-court level, a three-judge panel in Chicago found women who need time off work for infertility treatment may invoke the Pregnancy Discrimination Act as potential protection against adverse action. The ruling came in a case involving Cheryl Hall, a secretary who was laid off after...

The Florida Chamber of Commerce and The Florida Retail Federation argued for three years that business owners had an absolute right to control their employees. That's why they kept calling it the "take-your-guns-to-work" legislation. They claimed they could search employee vehicles and ban firearms from those vehicles in the employer's parking lot. They claimed businesses didn't care if customers had guns in cars, they only cared about their right to control employees. When the legislature passed the law protecting the rights of workers, The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation filed a lawsuit in federal court asking...

As many as 5.4 million working Californians don't get any paid sick days - and they tend to be both sicker and poorer than employees who do receive sick leave, according to a report released Wednesday. "The more you need paid sick days, the less likely you are to have them," said Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, director of occupational and environmental health for San Francisco and a contributor to the report.

The proper role of government is to provide equal opportunity for all, not preferential treatment for any one particular group. Comparable worth is a warped social theory and all U.S. legislatures and courts that have considered it have rejected it for that very reason. The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338), introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) in the House and by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in the Senate, would amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even if a disparity in pay is determined to be unintentional. It would also require the Department...

A federal judge has dealt a major defeat to Florida's business lobby by upholding the main thrust of a new law allowing employees with concealed weapons permits to take their guns to work. The so called "guns-at-work" law was the product of a three-year constitutional clash that pitted the powerful National Rifle Association against equally influential business groups over two basic constitutional concepts: the right of private property and the right to bear arms.

Europe's highest court ruled that a Belgian garage-door installer broke the European Union's antidiscrimination laws by stating publicly that he wouldn't hire Moroccans, even though there was no evidence any job applicant had actually been rejected. The decision expands the scope of EU discrimination laws, raises questions of free speech, and highlights a tension between the bloc and its constituent countries over how much sway Brussels should have in domestic labor-market affairs. A Belgian court originally found that the statements -- made in newspaper and television interviews -- might be unsavory but didn't necessarily amount to discrimination since no injured...

Walt Disney World fired a security guard on Monday after he protested the company's decision not to allow people with concealed weapons permits to keep guns in their cars on Disney property. Disney terminated Edwin Sotomayor, 36, of Orlando for violating three Disney employee policies, essentially for failing to cooperate with an internal investigation, said spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez. Sotomayor vowed to continue his fight. At issue is Florida's new law that allows people with concealed weapons permits to keep firearms in their vehicles in employee parking lots. Disney advised its employees late last month that the theme-park resort is exempt...

Bobby Jindal signs bill giving employees the right to have firearms in their automobiles "on company property".

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A new state law went on the books Tuesday saying people could bring guns to work if they kept them locked in their car. Disney, though, said it was exempt from the new law and its 62,000 employees needed to keep their guns at home. Friday, a worker who protested the park’s decision told Channel 9 he was suspended. The worker was well aware that he could end up losing his job when he took the gun to work Friday morning, but said that the principle at stake means enough to him that he was willing...

Philly radio station refuses to run Democratic ad By David Matthews Posted: 07/03/08 02:29 PM [ET] A Philadelphia news radio station has rejected a Democratic ad that features an impersonator of President Bush thanking GOP congressional candidates for supporting the “Big Oil” agenda. Philadelphia KYW-AM Vice President and General Manager David Yadgaroff said his station decided not to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) ad because it was worried its listeners would be misled. “As an all-news station, we were concerned that our listeners would have been misled by usage of an impersonator in the creative delivery,” Yadgaroff said...

The Denver Post ran a column by Al Lewis that questioned the need to enact a Right to Work law in Colorado and the reaction has been visceral. Dozens of citizens have taken it upon themselves to teach Mr. Lewis a thing or two about the unfairness of forced unionism. A sample of the reaction: * . . . I am 72 years old and had been in the work force for 50 years prior to my employment with the City of Boulder and this is the FIRST time that I have ever been in a union. $10.00 a month...

It seems too lunatic to be true. But here a hair salon boss reveals how she was driven to the brink of ruin - and forced to pay £4,000 for 'hurt feelings' - after refusing to hire a Muslim stylist who wouldn't show her hair at work For Sarah Desrosiers, meeting Bushra Noah was not a moment in her life that she would describe as especially memorable. Not only was it brief - lasting little more than ten minutes - but it was rapidly obvious to Sarah that Bushra was not the person for the junior stylist position she was...

SAN FRANCISCO -- An employer has no right to read an employee's text messages without the worker's knowledge and consent, and federal law bars service providers from turning over the contents of the messages to the employer who pays for the service, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today. The court's unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel stemmed from a lawsuit by Ontario Police Sgt. Jeff Quon and three others against the city's service provider and the city and Police Department for violating his constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches. Although the city had informed employees...

Howard Weyers tried the "carrot" approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn't work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick. Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees' spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing. Weyers' method, while effective, wouldn't fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing...

The owners of the 300-unit Seabury Heights Apartments in Worcester, Mass., got in trouble last year when they turned on the building's air conditioning in early June. As reported in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, some of Seabury's elderly tenants complained, first to management, then to the city, about being cold. In the end, Seabury was forced to turn the heat back on because in Massachusetts, it's against the law — against the law! — for landlords to turn off their furnaces before June 15. You see where this is going. Chastened by last year's run-in with the government, Seabury...

HOUMA, La. (AP) - A 6-foot-3, 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they're hearty eaters. A spokesman for the restaurant denies the claim.Ricky Labit, a disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular for eight months at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma, eating there as often as three times a week.On his most recent visit, he said, a waitress gave him and his wife's cousin, 44-year-old Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults."She says, 'Y'all fat, and...

THE SUPREME COURT pleased workers this week when it ruled in two cases that employees who suffer retaliation after complaining about discrimination may sue under existing civil rights law. Yet both decisions are deeply flawed and should make those applauding the results more than a little nervous. In a 7 to 2 vote, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. in the majority, the court concluded that a 19th-century law crafted to protect the legal rights of newly freed slaves also protected Hedrick G. Humphries, an African American associate manager at Cracker Barrel who complained...

California would become the first state to require paid sick leave for every worker under legislation passed Wednesday by the Assembly. The measure would allow the sick leave to be used for a personal illness, to care for a sick family member, or to recover from domestic violence or sexual assault. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, said her Assembly Bill 2716 would protect more than 5 million Californians – about a third of the work force – who are forced to choose between working while sick or losing pay. "(It's) a win-win for workers and employers alike and is an...

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas -- A federal judge found Wednesday that a Dallas suburb's rule prohibiting apartment rentals to illegal immigrants was unconstitutional and could not be enforced.In his decision, U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay concluded Farmers Branch didn't defer to the federal government in immigration matters. Instead, the city tried to create its own classification to determine which noncitizens could rent in Farmers Branch, the judge said.Lindsay also wrote that the city's attempts to salvage the ordinance faltered because they would have required the court to draft laws. That function is outside of the court's duties.Council members passed the...

Is your boss a nightmare? Not just annoying, but so completely lacking in people skills as to possibly be a sociopath? There may now be more you can do than simply renting "Office Space" for the 11th time. The Los Angeles Times reports that lawmakers across the country are considering legislation that would give workers grounds to sue their superiors "for being, basically, jerks." The specific standards for behavior that would justify such lawsuits are still being worked out. At least four state legislatures, including those in New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington, are considering such a measure

To hold down medical costs, some firms are penalizing workers who are overweight or don't meet health guidelines. Looking for new ways to trim the fat and boost workers' health, some employers are starting to make overweight employees pay if they don't slim down. Others, citing growing medical costs tied to obesity, are offering fit workers lucrative incentives that shave thousands of dollars a year off healthcare premiums. In one of the boldest moves yet, an Indiana-based hospital chain last month said it decided on the stick rather than the carrot. Starting in 2009, Clarian Health Partners will charge employees...

Some Colorado Springs restaurant owners worry that they will have to raise prices, lay off workers or shut their doors after new minimum wage rules go into effect Monday. The minimum wage in Colorado increases $1.70 an hour for tipped and nontipped workers Monday. That represents a 33 percent increase for nontipped workers, to $6.85 an hour, and an 80 percent increase, to $3.83 an hour, for tipped workers. Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment mandating the increases in November. These costs will be adjusted annually according to the Colorado Price Index, which is based on the cost of living...

[...] The suit, filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court, is highly unusual because it involves an employee who was terminated for engaging in legal activities away from the workplace. The lawyer who filed the complaint said he believes it is the first of its kind in the state. [...] "Employers should be greatly concerned about how employees perform their jobs and what happens in the workplace, but how employees want to lead their private lives is their own business," said Boston lawyer Harvey A. Schwartz, who represents Scott Rodrigues in his civil rights and privacy violation lawsuit against Scotts. "Next...

A federal judge in U.S. District Court in Chicago has ruled that Craigslist is not responsible for openly discriminatory housing ads placed on its site by users. In the case of Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc. v. Craigslist Inc., No. 06C-0657 (N.D. Ill.), Judge Amy St. Eve upheld Craigslist's argument that it is not a "publisher" of housing ads, but merely a provider of online "interactive services," and therefore is not liable for the content of users' posts under the 1996 Communications Decency Act. The plaintiff in the case, a Chicago-based civil rights group called Chicago...

Chicago aldermen bucked Mayor Daley on Wednesday, voting by a remarkable veto-proof majority to require big-box retailers to pay their workers at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010. Wal-Mart and other big stores had warned they would seriously reconsider plans to expand or locate in Chicago -- a threat the majority of aldermen didn't take seriously. For Chicago's sake and that of the city's unemployed poor, they'd better be right. The proposal applies to any stores with more than 90,000 square feet of space that are owned by companies that have at least $1 billion in...

The way Joe Fabics sees it, he has the right to choose who lives under his roof with him. His choice: God-fearing Christians. But state officials are investigating whether Fabics is violating housing discrimination laws by asking tenants in his New Brunswick house to sign leases with phrases such as, "This is a Christian household" and "If you hate God, do not move in." "I try to tell people to believe in God and the Ten Commandments, not the desecration of today's teachings," he said. "I'm just telling them that this is a Christian household and that if they don't...

In an election year, legislators do irrational things, such as spend more money than the budget supports, fund pork projects for their districts, and raise the minimum wage. There is an important principle in economics called the Law of Demand. It states that the higher the price of something, the less that will be bought. This applies to everything, including labor. When GM wants to sell more cars, it lowers prices.

Man Says Job Reviews Were More Favorable With 1 Eye, Rather Than 2 (STNG) CHICAGO James Filson says he always met and "often exceeded" the expectations of the Big Ten Conference in the eight years he worked as a football official for the collegiate athletic conference. In the spring of 2000, an accident caused him to lose one eye. He returned to his job that season -- without informing his bosses of the accident -- and contends that in the five years that he worked with one eye -- which included officiating two Bowl games -- reviews of his work...

The percentage of businesses that force their employees to pee in a cup is dropping -- largely because it never made much sense in the first place A major laboratory testing company offered the cheery news recently that the percentage of American workers who tested positive for illegal drugs last year was the lowest ever. Being a dominant player in the more than $1.5 billion a year drug testing field, Quest Diagnostics naturally attributed much of the decline — from a high of 13.6% in 1988 to 4.1% in 2005 — to rituals like peeing in a cup. Drug testing...

What are ‘extreme’ hairdos for amusement park workers? By ROSE RUSSELL FOLKS are intimidated about hair, especially black people’s hair. This was an issue in the 1980s, and hasn’t been in the news until recently when Six Flags amusement park in Largo, Md., targeted employees wearing “extreme hairstyles,” such as locks — also called dreadlocks — long braids, and some cornrows. The park’s new general manger is a black man. But more about Terry Prather later. Six Flags America’s 2006 seasonal handbook says workers can’t wear locks, tails, partially shaved heads, “or any hairstyle that detracts or takes away from...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Democrats ratcheted up their election-year push for an increase in the federal minimum wage Tuesday by promising to block a congressional pay hike unless some of the lowest-paid hourly workers get their first raise in nearly a decade. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada refused to spell out exactly how he will block a $3,300 pay raise scheduled for January 1 for members of Congress, who currently earn $165,200 annually. He said with 40 Senate Democrats backing the maneuver, "We can stop anything they (Republicans) try to do with a congressional pay raise."

The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage Wednesday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade. The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval under budget rules and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass. The Senate vote marked the ninth time since 1997 that Democrats there have proposed — and Republicans have blocked — a stand-alone increase...

The coalition pushing for a paid sick leave ordinance in Madison was scheduled to meet today to see how to advance a policy that Tuesday night was dealt another defeat, this one called a double-cross.Council President Austin King, the main proponent of the proposal, said this morning he was blindsided by the 10-8 vote against putting the issue to an advisory referendum this fall. King said two council members, Ald. Noel Radomski and Ald. Isadore Knox, explicitly told him shortly before the meeting that they would vote for his proposal, but surprised him late Tuesday by opposing it. King also...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday defeated a proposal pushed by Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage in increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by January 1, 2009. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, unsuccessfully tried to attach the proposal raising the wage for the first time since 1997 to a defense authorization bill that is expected to be passed by the Senate soon.

AP) The owners of a roller skating rink have fired an 18-year-old woman they called one of their "Top 10" employees because she moved in with her boyfriend, violating a company ethics policy that prohibits "live-in relationships of an intimate nature." "I loved my job and I didn't want to leave," Crystal Plotner told the Coeur d'Alene Press this week. She said she was fired after casually telling her bosses, Skate Plaza owners Marvin and Pat Miller, that she planned to move in with her boyfriend in mid-May. Before terminating her, Plotner said the Millers said she and her boyfriend...

The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating complaints from more than a dozen black employees at a Six Flags theme park who were told their hairstyles were inappropriate. Jonathan DeLeon, 17, was hired at Six Flags America in Largo, Md., in March to wear the costumes of Sylvester and Daffy Duck. A few weeks later, he said he was told to cut his braids, which were at least 3 feet long. Though his mother cut more than 2 feet of his hair, park officials were dissatisfied, he said. "They told me I had to cut them even shorter or go...

Is the Wage Gap Women's Choice? Research Suggests Career Decisions, Not Sex Bias, Are at Root of Pay Disparity May. 27, 2005 - Last month on Wage Equity Day, politicians demanded new laws to protect women from what they say is an unfair pay scale. We hear about the so-called wage gap over and over, and many studies have found that women make about 75 cents for every dollar a man earns. Activists and politicians say the pay difference is all about sexism. "No matter how hard women work, or whatever they achieve in terms of advancement in their...

The workplace is becoming friendlier for gay and transgender employees, according to a report released today by the Human Rights Campaign, a national advocacy group. According to the report, "The State of the Workplace for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans 2004," at least 8,250 employers provided domestic partner benefits at the end of 2004, a 13 percent increase over the previous year. Among the Fortune 500, 216 companies provided domestic partner benefits, 10 times the number in 1995, when 21 of the companies offered the benefits. "As we suspected, corporate America is well ahead of America generally in terms...

The job candidate interviewing to be a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress seemed to have exceptional qualifications: a 25-year Army veteran and former Special Forces commander who spent a career hunting terrorists and often personally briefed the vice president, defense secretary or Joint Chiefs of Staff on sensitive operations. The interviews and salary talks went well for David Schroer. A job offer followed, and he accepted. Then the new employee brought up one last item: Once work began, the name would be Diane, not David.

The minimum wage has been at $5.15 an hour for almost eight years, and it is long overdue for a raise. Unfortunately, instead of helping working families by raising the minimum wage, the Republicans in the state Senate joined their extreme colleagues in the Assembly by passing AB 49 this month, which takes away the power of cities to raise the minimum wage. As the leading advocates behind the already enacted minimum wage ordinances in Madison and Milwaukee, we are greatly disheartened at the Legislature attacking local control and working people. Although Republicans going on a power grab and fighting...

For folks who remember the southern California grocery chain strike last year, a key to the grocers breaking the strike was a revenue sharing deal between the big chains-- thereby preventing the unions from easily reaching settlement with any of the firms individually. Sounds a lot like corporate collusion that should be barred by antitrust law, doesn't it? And yesterday, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit by the California Attorney General alleging antitrust violations to move forward. U.S. District Judge George H. King in Los Angeles wrote in his decision that the mutual-aid deal was "not protected from potential antitrust...

The California Supreme Court took a look today at a lesbian couple’s claim that a golf country club discriminated against them by charging them higher membership fees than spouses pay. The case could be a preview of how the court approaches the same-sex marriage issue. By granting family memberships only to married couples, the San Diego country club “chose criteria that same-sex couples could not possibly meet," said Jon Davidson, legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and lawyer for the couple who filed the suit. His argument – that a spouses-only policy amounts to discrimination against...