Ask the Employment Law Attorney: Napping on the Job – Can an Employee with a Sleep Disorder be Fired?
Question: I can only sleep two to four hours a night. A doctor says I can work only eight hours a day as a result of this. My employer says they’ll fire me if I don’t agree to work against...
Fourth Circuit: Employer Did Not Violate ADA When it Fired a Registered Nurse Who Suffered From Drug and Alcohol Addiction
When a Registered Nurse’s supervisor called her a “drunk” and fired her, despite being aware of the nurse’s previous drug and alcohol addiction, the nurse brought a discriminatory discharge claim against the hospital pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act,...
Can a company settle an overtime claim with its employee without litigation?
Conventional wisdom says no, but recent legal decisions suggest that it may be possible if the settlement is in good faith. (These decisions have analyzed the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or Act) that prevent an employee...
Another Small-Business Win; Set-Asides Are Themselves “Competitive”
Here is another win for small-business contractors from the Court of Federal Claims. In an effort to save its contract from a small-business set-aside for which it was ineligible, an incumbent contractor, Dynamic Educational Systems, Inc., (“Dynamic”) filed a pre-award...
Bars Zoned Out of Business Cannot Rely on Prior Special Exception
Two businesses (Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe) were operating as restaurant/bars in Hampton Roads, Virginia. They had been operating under a blanket special exception to the zoning ordinance. After some ABC violations, the City later revoked the...
Contractor Loses Bid Protest Where Agency Incrementally Corrects Its Mistakes With Great Reluctance; Ask the Bid Protest Attorney
A government agency took corrective action in a series of incremental steps over the course of many months to address a contractor’s pre-award bid protests. (“Corrective action” means that the agency fixes the problems of which the protester complains). However,...
Contractor Excluded from a Sole Source Contract Wins Bid Protest
This case is a good checklist for contractors upset at being left out of a sole source procurement. Innovation Development Enterprises of America, Inc. (IDEA) complained that the United States Air Force violated the Competition in Contracting Act when it...
Contractor Loses Bid Protest by Asking a Bad Question
Every trial lawyer knows that it is dangerous to ask a question to a witness unless he already knows the answer. In this bid protest case, a contractor asked a question that was published in the solicitation’s Questions and Answers...
Likening the Federal Government’s Argument to “Alice in Wonderland,” the Court Sustains a Bid Protest Where the Agency Put an Incorrect Deadline on Its Website
Who says that government contract law is not fun? While it is not common for a federal judge to cite Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in a bid protest decision, it is not common for the United States to...