News from Thrun Law

MERC recently held that a school district violated PERA by refusing to provide a union with the contact information for employees within a bargaining unit represented by the union. Lapeer Cmty Schs v SEIU Local 517M, Case No. C18 H-078 (2019). MERC’s decision clarifies that when an employer maintains contact in­formation for employees represented by a union, the employer generally has an obligation to share that information with the union upon request.

In this case, a union...

Schools are receiving an overwhelming number of sexual misconduct reports, including both student-to-student and staff-to-student sexual harassment, result­ing in an increase in Title IX investigations. Those inves­tigations vary slightly from general misconduct investi­gations because federal law requires school offi­cials to take specific steps during and after a Title IX investiga­tion. Knowing what triggers a Title IX investigation and what steps to take at the outset may protect your...

A school’s legal obligations under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and now Michigan’s Paid Medical Leave Act (PMLA), often depend on whether an employee is “non-exempt” under the FLSA. Improperly classifying employees as “exempt” may result in significant liability.

Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees must be compensated at a rate of time-and-one-half for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. The FLSA also imposes recordkeeping requirements on employers for non-exempt...

Section 1249a(1) of the Revised School Code states “a school district, intermediate school district, or public school academy shall not assign a pupil to be taught in the same subject area for 2 consecutive years by a teacher who has been rated as ineffective on his or her 2 most recent annual year-end evaluations.” Thrun Law Firm interprets this language to prohibit a school from assigning a student for two consecutive years in the same subject area to any teacher rated ineffective...