Employment Law

Fast Food Workers in 236 Cities Pull Off Largest Strikes Yet as Other Low-wage Workers Join Fight

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A hand-lettered placard, reading “McDonald’s: Stop Fooling Around, $15 and a union,” caught the spirit of the crowd of at least 3,000 protestors in Chicago for a march to a McDonald’s restaurant in the downtown Loop area connected to the Chicago Board of Trade. In 236 cities in the U.S. and roughly 100 more around the world from Sao Paulo to New Zealand and from Glasgow to Tokyo, according to protest spokespeople, fast food and other low-wage workers joined together to pressure employers like McDonald’s to raise their workers’ pay.

Organizers claimed that it was the largest protest by low-wage workers in U.S. history. And it may very well rank as one of the broadest global worker protests ever undertaken against multinational corporations—one reinforced by recent investigations and lawsuits in Europe against the company for violations of labor, health, safety, tax and other laws.

Commercial Law

In Test for Unions and Politicians, a Nationwide Protest on Pay

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The protest by tens of thousands of low-wage workers, students and activists in more than 200 American cities on Wednesday is the most striking effort to date in a two-and-a-half-year-old labor-backed movement that is testing the ability of unions to succeed in an economy populated by easily replaceable service sector workers.

Labor has invested tens of millions of dollars in a campaign for a $15-an-hour minimum wage that goes beyond traditional workplace organizing, taking on a cause that has captured broad public support. But the movement is up against a hostile business sector sheltered by a decades-old federal labor law that makes it difficult for workers to directly confront the wealthy corporations that dominate the fast-food and hospitality industries.

For political activists looking to the 2016 presidential campaign and beyond, the wage fight is coming at a potentially pivotal moment, the first concrete, large-scale challenge in decades to an economic system they view as skewed toward the wealthy.

Employment Law

McDonald’s Minimum Raise

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The decision by McDonald’s to raise workers’ pay to at least $1 over the local minimum wage offers some help for the 90,000 employees at the 1,500 American restaurants run by its corporate headquarters, but the relief is minimal and leaves out the far greater number of workers at the company’s franchise outlets.

On average, the raise for eligible workers will lift pay to $9.90 an hour by July, up from $9.01, and to about $10 an hour in 2016. It does not apply to 660,000 employees at 12,500 McDonald’s franchises.

The increase follows moves by other low-wage employers but is more limited. It covers 12 percent of the McDonald’s work force and costs an amount equal to about 2 percent of profits in 2014. The recent raise at Walmart, to at least $10 an hour, covered nearly 40 percent of workers at a cost of about 6 percent of Walmart’s 2014 profits.

Clearly, if the McDonald’s raise were a response to the competition for workers, it would be bigger. And it does not come close to meeting protesters’ demands for $15 an hour, though the movement to improve fast-food workers’ pay has helped to push McDonald’s to this point.

Employment Law

McDonald’s to Raise Pay at Outlets It Operates

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McDonald’s announced on Wednesday that it would raise wages and offer new benefits to 90,000 employees in the 1,500 outlets in the United States that it owns and operates, responding to competitive pressure from a tighter job market and to labor campaigns drawing public attention to its pay policies.

The decision, however, does not affect the 750,000 employees who work for the more than 3,100 franchisees that operate roughly 12,500 McDonald’s restaurants around the country.

The company will increase wages to at least $1 over the local legal minimum wage for workers in restaurants under corporate control to an average of $9.90 an hour by July 1. That average will increase to more than $10 in 2016.

Employees who have worked in company restaurants more than a year will also be eligible for paid time off, whether they work full or part time. An employee who works an average of 20 hours a week might accrue as much as 20 hours of paid time off a year, the company said.

Employment Law

Movement to Increase McDonald’s Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics

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ATLANTA — On a recent Friday, Kwanza Brooks, a $7.25-an-hour McDonald’s worker, climbed into a 14-person van to take a four-hour ride from Charlotte, N.C., to Atlanta.

As she and other workers headed south, Ms. Brooks, a short, fiery woman, swapped stories with her companions about unsafe conditions and unfair managers. Upon arriving, they joined more than 400 other people — including home care aides, Walmart workers, child care workers and adjunct professors — at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been a pastor.

The gathering on March 21 was in part a strategy session to plan for the fast-food movement’s next big wave of protests, which is now scheduled for April 15. But the meeting was also seeking to be something far more ambitious. Through some strategic alchemy, the organizers hoped the gathering would turn the fast-food workers’ fight for a $15 hourly wage into a broad national movement of all low-wage workers that combined the spirit of Depression-era labor organizing with the uplifting power of Dr. King’s civil rights campaign

Commercial Law

Minimum Wage for New York City’s Tipped Workers Will Increase to $7.50

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Continuing to push for higher wages for the state’s lowest-paid workers, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday that all of the waiters, waitresses and others who work for tips in New York City will soon get a raise of their minimum wage to $7.50 an hour.

The increase was ordered by the acting labor commissioner, Mario J. Musolino, and will go into effect at the end of the year. It will consolidate three categories of tipped workers — whose minimum hourly wages range from $4.90 to $5.65 — into a single class to be paid at least $7.50 an hour.

The governor appeared with labor leaders at a union hall in Manhattan to celebrate Mr. Musolino’s decision and to repeat his own call for an increase in the statewide minimum wage for nontipped workers to $10.50 an hour. Mr. Cuomo also restated his view that the general minimum wage in the city should be even higher, $11.50 an hour, because of the higher cost of living.

The statewide minimum is scheduled to rise to $9, from $8.75, at the end of the year. But Mr. Cuomo said that increase, which translates to about $18,000 a year before taxes, was insufficient

Employment Law

Final Retrospective

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In the wake of the great recession, a sense of righteous anger has spread through the public. The long-standing fact that millions of American workers struggle in jobs with wages so low they can’t provide for their families is taking center stage in our national political discourse. A growing awareness of the extent of economic inequality has galvanized a set of progressive political and social actions that seek to build a more just economy. In 2013 and 2014 alone, at least 12 cities and 17 states raised the minimum wage. Fast-food restaurant workers, who for several years have been organizing for union rights and raises to $15 an hour, went on strike in nearly 200 cities in 2014. Domestic and construction workers, long marginalized in the labor force, are joining together to win rights and recognition.

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Commercial Law

A new effort to help black workers find higher-paying jobs

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A year ago, LeDaya Epps of Compton was unemployed and raising three children on her own, struggling to keep her car running to search for jobs.

On Tuesday night, she was sitting in the U.S. Capitol for the State of the Union address, a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama. Through the help of community organizations pushing for greater inclusion of African American workers, Epps has earned a good paycheck for more than six months helping to build the Crenshaw/LAX light-rail line.

Epps’ improving fortunes stem from an approach experts say could alleviate persistently high unemployment in the black community. An agreement involving government, organized labor and community organizations has required contractors to provide more opportunities for disadvantaged workers to get jobs on the rail project.

It’s an effort to create pipelines for black workers into higher-paying industries such as construction. Without such intervention, success often comes down to connections rather than qualifications, saidLola Smallwood Cuevas, director of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, an affiliate of the UCLA Labor Center.

“It’s a question of the social networks around the work,” said Cuevas, whose organization helped Epps find work. “How do you crack what has historically been a difficult industry for women, and for black workers in particular?”

Commercial Law

NLRB hits McDonald’s as joint employer

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McDonald’s and its franchisees illegally retaliated against employees for participating in union-related activities, the National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer alleged Friday in a case with sweeping industry implications.

NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin announced Friday he will issue 13 complaints involving 78 charges against franchises and McDonald’s USA, LLC.

Though many of these alleged labor violations were committed by independent franchise owners, Griffin ruled earlier this year that McDonald’s can be held liable for those actions as a so-called joint employer, leaving the corporatrion — and potentially other franchisors — exposed to such claims.

McDonald’s said the decision will “strike at the heart of the franchise system.”

“McDonald’s is disappointed with the board’s decision to overreach and move forward with these charges,” the company said in a statement.

“These allegations are driven in large part by a two-year, union-financed campaign that has targeted the McDonald’s brand and impacted McDonald’s restaurants,” it added.

McDonald’s argued it shouldn’t be held responsible for labor decisions made by independent franchise operators, but labor groups accused the popular fast food chain of “inventing a make-believe world in which responsibility for wages and working conditions falls squarely on the shoulder of franchisees.”

Commercial Law

Fast Food Workers, Joined By Other Low Wage Workers, Strike in Record 190 Cities

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Two years after fast food workers in New York walked out of stores and restaurants throughout the city to demand $15 an hour and a union, their movement has grown and changed dramatically. That was evident on December 4, when fast food workers in approximately 190 cities went out on strike, according to organizers—the largest number so far.

In addition, since the “Fight for 15” came at a time of continuing decline in real wages for most Americans, the workers’ demands have triggered new, broad-based campaigns that are winning much higher minimum wages than anyone dreamed possible in many states and localities. Organizers claim that in large part thanks to this spreading campaign, nearly 7 million workers have received significant pay raises.

But the workers’ reliance on direct action, including civil disobedience that started last year and has been part of many protests and strikes since, has also inspired workers from other industries to join in, especially low-wage service workers who are largely interchangeable in the job market.

For example, according to organizers, as workers went out on strike at the super-sized “Rock ‘n Roll McDonald’s” in downtown Chicago during today’s actions, a convenience store clerk at a nearby BP station who had witnessed such protests before walked off his job and joined the fast food workers. Around the country, organizers said that burger cooks and cashiers were joined not only by convenience store workers but also home care aides, airport workers, dollar store and Walmart clerks, federal contract workers and even some adjunct professors.

Employment Law

Black Workers Matter

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Asserting that black lives matter also means that the quality of those lives matters. This report takes its title from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which was founded following George Zimmerman’s acquittal of murder in the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin.

In the time since, #BlackLivesMatter has served both as an umbrella and a focus point for protest and activism in response to the violent deaths of black people across America at the hands of law enforcement officials. The movement hit a peak in the latter half of 2014 as grand juries failed to indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City. The explosion of political protest that arose in Ferguson and other cities has inspired a new wave of activism that goes well beyond the individual cases of these black people who lost their lives.

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Commercial Law

9 Ways to Expand Your Business

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When you have a business there is nearly always one or more ways to expand that are not necessarily expensive – of course, many ways that are more costly. It is a great idea to consult with your business consultants and commercial lawyers and even with your accountant to ensure you don’t overestimate the amount involved and end up struggling to meet other payments and costs.

Here are 9 ways in which you may be able to expand, depending on your business model: –

  • Go online. Having a website will take your business to the next level, since these days so many people spend their time online. Your website must be responsive so it is easy to read on a small screen because people go online with their iPhones as much as a computer. You can have a landing page to harvest email addresses, or sales pages that enable customers to buy their goods directly from your business 24/7. If your website is international, make sure the goods you offer are allowed in other countries.
  • Import goods from other countries to sell. If your business sells goods, purchasing stock from other countries may mean you can offer a wider variety of goods that are not available locally. Many people love the goods that are available overseas. Be sure to follow the import/ laws of your own and the other country.
  • Export your goods. Sending goods overseas can also mean an expansion in your data base and you can easily take orders through your website. Make sure you only export what is allowed in the destination country.

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Family Law

12 Tips to Get Through a Divorce Without Going Crazy

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Divorce

There is no doubt about it, divorce is a stressful time, an emotional roller coaster that often makes you feel as if you are going crazy. That is why you will probably need advice from family lawyers to make sure you know exactly what you need to do to facilitate matters and to understand what your rights are.

It is a sad fact that many once happy couples need to seek out a law firm such as Family Lawyers Perth to help with a divorce – and then may think they will never be happy again. But life moves on and you will find as time goes by, you can adapt and have a life of your own once again. It may even be a better life than you had before.

Here are some tips to help you get through that divorce and come out the other side without having gone crazy.

  • When choosing a family lawyer, find a supportive lawyer to advise you and represent you if you need to go to court.
  • When you separate from your spouse, make sure you find a safe place to live. If there was violence, you don’t have to give them your address.
  • If your spouse threatens you, take out an VRO (Violence Restraining Order) against them. Then if they harass you they can be punished for it.
  • Don’t allow your ex to manipulate you by making you feel guilty. It takes two to work on a happy marriage. Know that there is most likely fault on both sides, but that doesn’t matter now. The courts don’t consider fault in any way; they only need to know that the relationship has broken down irretrievably.

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Criminal Law

What Happens if You Get Caught Drink Driving?

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If you have consumed alcohol and then drive a vehicle, you may find yourself on a drink driving charge. For this to happen, you will have been pulled over for a breathalyser test. If you fail the test, you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of the law and will need the help of criminal lawyers. The penalties for drink driving – also known as DUI (Driving Under the Influence) vary from state to state and much depends on the circumstances of the individual case.

How far over the limit you were, whether you were speeding or caused an accident and even the type of vehicle you were driving are all factors that are taken into account at your trial – if it comes to a trial, that is. It may be that you are simply fined and have points taken off your driver’s licence.

As a general rule, the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream of a driver must not be more than 0.05%. However, this may vary if you are a learner driver, on P plates or if you were driving a truck. In the latter case, the amount of alcohol in the blood must be nil.

The penalties for DUI vary depending on –

  • Your age
  • The blood alcohol level (BAC)
  • Type of licence you have
  • If there are any previous DUI convictions
  • If there are any other charges such as speeding
  • The type of vehicle you were driving

As we know, in Australia police can stop any vehicle to test the driver for DUI, whether they suspect you’ve been drinking or not.

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Employment Law

The Movement to End Wage Theft

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Over the last decade, grassroots opposition to Wage Theft has grown dramatically across the country. Wage theft, the illegal underpayment of wages primarily affects the working poor. It is widespread and occurs in various forms and industries. It is estimated that millions of low wage workers annually are not paid at legally required overtime rates, at minimum wages or for total hours worked. In response workers’ rights organizations have engaged in increasingly sophisticated and successful campaigns to strengthen enforcement and make sure that monies due employees are repaid.

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