Last week, Famighetti & Weinick PLLC posted a blog summarizing the Janus v. AFSCME union case which overturned the 1977 decision, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. The majority decision held that employees who choose not to be part of a union but who nonetheless benefit from collective bargaining results…
Articles Posted in Public Employees’ Rights
Discussion of the SCOTUS Union Dues Case: Janus
On June 27, 2018, social media and news outlets went crazy when the Supreme Court decided Janus v. State, County, and Municipal Employees. Many posters and commentators argued that the decision constituted an assault by SCOTUS on unions. From a strictly legal perspective, however, Janus decided a question related to…
First Amendment Retaliation From Union Activity
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects, among other rights, the freedom of speech. An unsettled area of employment law in New York has been the question of how much protection does the First Amendment provide to public sector employees like police officers. Today’s Long Island employment law…
Twitter and the First Amendment
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects several rights, including the freedom of speech. Indeed, the text of the Amendment reads “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” Like most Constitutional rights, the freedom of speech is not limitless and the level…
Solicitation of Employment is First Amendment Speech
In 2009, the Town of Oyster Bay in New York passed a law prohibiting people from soliciting employment along roadways within the Town. Two public interest groups sued the Town alleging that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. On August 22, 2017, the Second Circuit Court…
Section 75 Lawyers
Many of New York’s public employees are protected by Section 75 of the Civil Service Law. Public employees include employees of the state, counties, towns, villages, cities, and special districts such as fire districts, library districts, sanitation districts, and school districts. The employment lawyers on Long Island of Famighetti &…
Filing a Notice of Claim in New York
Generally, if you want to sue a municipality in New York – a town, city, village, or county, or a special district such as a school district, fire district, library district, or sanitation district — you must first file a notice of claim. A good rule of thumb is that…