A criminal defendant ordered to perform community service in order to avoid conviction on minor charges is not an “employee” of the nonprofit or public agency for which the defendant works, and the labor is not covered by the wage and hour requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal court in New York has ruled.
Although board members can cut the risk of personal liability by conforming their conduct to the appropriate standards, they cannot control whether or not they will be sued. Therefore, they should be sure that the organization maintains proper insurance to protect them against foreseeable hazards, including general liability coverage, professional liability coverage where appropriate, and directors and officers liability insurance.
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Stating that there were too many “loose ends” in the termination of an employee who filed several claims of racial discrimination and retaliation with the EEOC, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a summary judgment for the defendants and allowed the employee to go to trial on the issues.
Although the federal District Court for the District of Columbia had held that two mothers whose daughters were denied admission to the prestigious Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority chapter at Howard University qualified for federal court jurisdiction because they might have had $75,000 in damages at stake, it has now denied them any recovery and dismissed the case as moot.
