Employment Discrimination

One Trump Supporters Legal Crusade Against Fox News — Chicago’s Top Sex Discrimination Lawyers

November 11, 2017 | Peter S. Lubin, Patrick Austermuehle and James V. DiTommaso

At least one Trump supporter is, not only well aware of the issues that face minorities in this country, but is actively fighting to support those minorities.

His target? Fox News.

Because Fox News has been such a strong supporter of Trump, you’d think an attorney who donated $40,000 to Trump’s campaign and voted for him in both the primary and general elections would also support Fox News, but that’s not the case for attorney Douglas Wigdor.

Wigdor started filing lawsuits against Fox News late last year after a reporter for Fox 5, Lidija Ujkic, sought him out after having heard about a case he had settled in which he had argued on behalf of a woman who claimed her pregnancy had led to her demotion at Goldman Sachs. Ujkic’s claims against Fox were similar.

Wigdor took Ujkic’s case, and a few months later, took on another, this time alleging racial bias. Eleven new plaintiffs ended up joining that case in the following month, including Kelly Wright, the only black man to work as a news anchor on the conservative news channel.

That apparently opened the floodgates, as Wigdor followed it up by suing the media giant two more times that month, three times the following month, once in July, once in August and again in September. Continue reading ›

Employment Retaliation Claims on the Rise

December 1, 2012 | Peter S. Lubin, Patrick Austermuehle and James V. DiTommaso

Employment retaliation claims are on the rise, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC reports that, in 2011, retaliation claims accounted for 37.4 percent of all charges filed with the EEOC, amounting to a total of 37,334 charges. This number represents an increase of more than 72 percent since 2000, when the total number of retaliation claims was 21,613.

What Is Employee Retaliation?

Employees are protected from discrimination in the workplace through various federal and state laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. These laws, not only prohibit acts of discrimination based on race, gender, religion, disabilities, and age, but they also prohibit employers from firing, demoting, harassing or otherwise retaliating against an employee or applicant who files a charge of discrimination or participates in a discrimination lawsuit or investigation.

NPR Reports “Citigroup Slammed With Lawsuit By Former Female Employees”

October 31, 2010 | Peter S. Lubin, Patrick Austermuehle and James V. DiTommaso

Our Chicago attorneys are experienced in handling all kinds of employment litigation for individual and class action lawsuits including race and sex discrimination cases as well as unpaid overtime and wage claims. In our work as nationwide and Chicago wage and hour attorneys, we frequently see workers who have been misclassified as exempt from overtime. Whether this was an honest mistake or an intentional attempt to save money, it effectively “steals” wages from the misclassified employees. Lubin Austermuehle stands up for the rights of workers in Chicago, Illinois and throughout the country who are victims of overtime wage theft, including misclassified employees as well as those pressured to work off the clock; lie on timesheets; or simply not paid an overtime rate. Our Waukegan, Elgin, and Milwaukee unpaid overtime lawyers handle both individual and class action employment cases. Based in Chicago and Oak Brook, Ill., our Chicago Fair Labor Standard’s Act attorneys represent clients throughout Illinois, the Midwest and the United States.