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ANSWER KEY
Chapter 23 Employment Law
Opening Case Questions
1. The plaintiff, deputy DA Ceballos, filed a grievance that stated that his superiors, including
Garcetti, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County, had retaliated against him for persisting
4. Ceballos claimed that his First Amendment Free Speech Rights had been violated because, even
though he had been permitted to speak at the meeting during which the bogus warrant was
5. The textbook tells us that the Pickering Rule was explained by Justice Souter in a dissent that he
filed in the Ceballos case. Souter puts it this way: “Where the employee speaks “as a citizen . . .
upon matters of public concern,” the First Amendment offers protection but only where the
speech survives a screening test. Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist. 205,
Questions for Review and Discussion
2. The federal government has passed legislation that has altered the at-will doctrine in order
to add a level of fairness to employment law that would not exist absent that legislation. In particular,
the government has been interested in protecting employees from discrimination based on race, color,
3. Individuals with unique abilities, special talents, or a highly specialized
education often have the exibility to negotiate their own employment contracts.
Such individuals would not be aected by employment-at-will. Generally, such
people are in demand and can thus be selective in the choice of employers.
Professional athletes, established scientists, top business executives, famous
entertainers, and well-known artists and writers belong in this category. In
contrast to an individual employment contract, a collective bargaining agreement is
5. The after acquired evidence rule is applied when an employer uncovers evidence, usually during
7. The Fair Labor Standards Act provides that workers in interstate commerce must be paid the
minimum wage, must work no more than forty hours per week (unless they are paid time and a half for
overtime). It also forbids employment of children under fourteen. Unemployment insurance is
available to individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own and who earned sufficient
8. In the nineteenth century, several civil rights acts that were passed by Congress after the Civil
War and under the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. These new acts included the
Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1871. The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963 followed by the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 which provides a template that the other acts generally follow. The 1964 act
10. There are risks involved in developing any social media policy. Social media can be used to
disclose trade secrets or other company information that is best kept confidential. Social media can also
be used to harass fellow workers or customers or to defame them or perhaps to invade their privacy.
There are also legal limits set down by the Federal Trade Commission that might be violated
inadvertently by the improper use of social media. For these reasons, among others, it is best for every
business organization or institution to write and enforce a social media policy. A social media policy
Cases for Analysis
1. Several existing statutes could be called upon to handle family responsibility discrimination
(FRD) cases, even if those cases must go by another, more traditional name. These statutes include the
2. Yes. All of the elements of fraud exist. Meade was told a series of lies by the management of
Cedarapids, Inc. in order to get him to leave his job and move to Oregon. He relied on those false
statements and changed his position, thus losing a great deal as a result. Some students may want to
3. No. Discrimination based on single status is not illegal under the Civil Rights Act. Status as a
5. Henderson used the public policy exception to employment-at-will. The public policy exception
prevents employers from discharging an employee for reasons that violate public policy. Here
6. Yes. The court held that the injury to Bennerson, who was on his lunch hour at the time of the
7. Yes. The court affirmed the decision of the Board of Review that Barillaro and Fotia were
ineligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits because they refused offers of suitable work
without good cause. The court explained that good cause for refusing suitable work must be real and
not imaginary, substantial not trivial, and reasonable not whimsical. With regard to the claimants
arguments, the court held the following: a desire to avoid a cut in pay was not sufficiently compelling
8. No. The court ruled that a BFOQ defense will fail if the defendant demonstrates that there is a
reasonable need for the BFOQ. Moreover that reasonable need must be connected to the everyday tasks
of the business. To allow the local customs of a foreign country to determine the existence of a BFOQ
9. No. Since it was possible to mask Tylo’s pregnancy with various techniques including body
10. No. The court held that although mere possession of a college degree did not qualify a person to be
employed in the public health program, it did not follow that the lack of a degree was irrelevant or that
the degree requirement was not based on program necessity or was not job-related. The court reasoned
11. Yes. The court of appeals agreed with the trial court that the height and weight requirements that
eliminated 98 percent of the female applicants from eligibility were improper inasmuch as the
12. Yes. The plaintiff has stated sufficient grounds for her wrongful discharge suit. The courts said, “an
exception to the employment-at-will doctrine is justified where an employer has discharged his
employee in contravention of ‘sufficiently clear public policy.’ The existence of such a public policy
may be discerned by the Ohio judiciary based on sources such as the Constitutions of Ohio and the
United States, legislation, administrative rules and regulations, and the common law.” (Note:
END CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
