On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The new law effectively eliminates any time limitations for an employee to file a claim of pay discrimination. The law reverses a Supreme Court decision which held that employees must file a claim within the statutory timeframe (180 days) after the initial discriminatory action occurred. The act is effective back to the date of the court decision, May 28, 2007.
The timeframe for filing claims will now restart with every paycheck or benefit paid that was affected by the original action. For school employees who receive pension benefits based on their final salary, the potential claim filing period could extend through life. The Fair Pay Act of 2009 amends the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The recovery period for back pay remains at two years preceding the filing of the claim.
The best defense for employers is to document and maintain records of compensation decisions. The methods used in making compensation decisions could become part of a discrimination case in the distant future.
The last few years have brought a significant increase in class action litigation involving workplace issues centered at the state court level, according to Seyfarth Shaw’s 2009 Annual Class Action Litigation Report. The growth in state litigation has been concentrated in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas, a trend that the report indicates is likely to continue in 2009.
According to Seyfarth Shaw Attorney Jerry Maatman, there are three reasons for the increase:
Because of the large number of well-publicized lawsuits, Maatman expects company compliance efforts to catch up eventually, but notes that, “The plaintiff’s bar has not yet run out of litigation targets.”
—“State Wage and Hour Class Actions on the Rise in 2008,” by Joanne Deschenaux, Society for Human Resource Management Web site, Jan. 21, 2009.
One in four companies has instituted a salary freeze and that number could rise to one in three companies by the time 2009 budgets are final, according to the 2009 U.S. Salary Budget Planning poll conducted by Mercer, a global human capital consultant.
The worsening economy is the reason more companies are considering a freeze. Twelve to 18 months ago, just 5 percent of companies planned to freeze salaries for all or a portion of their staff.
The outlook has also worsened for executives, leaving them less likely than rank and file workers to get a salary increase. Lackluster corporate performance and public scrutiny of executive salaries has resulted in more than one-third of survey participants reporting that their organization went from a planned increase in executive base salaries to a freeze.
Mercer also found that performance pay and employee engagement will be increasingly important as employers attempt to attract and retain top performers—those most likely contribute to a company’s success and competitiveness.
The Social Security Administration now offers a free service that registered employers can use to verify whether a job applicant’s name and Social Security Number (SSN) match. The Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) allows employers to immediately verify SSN matches for up to 10 names. Employers must register to use the service. Visit the Social Security Administration’s Web site 
for more information on SSNVS.
The final, 70-cent increase in the minimum wage goes into effect July 24, 2009, bringing the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to review the pay of nonexempt employees and substitutes and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that your district remains in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Are all of your district’s Professional Development Appraiser System (PDAS) appraisers certified? You might want to double-check the status of Texas educators who completed and paid for their training after January 2008. While they paid a training fee, unless they followed up by completing a certification application provided by the Region XIII Education Service Center and paid the $75 fee for the credential, they are not recognized as certified appraisers.
Lauralee Pankonien, senior certification coordinator with Region XIII Education Service Center, says a significant number of educators have completed and paid for PDAS or Instructional Leadership Development (ILD) training but failed to complete the second step in the process. Both fees used to be collected at the same time, hence the confusion.
School districts that hire individuals who say they hold ILD or PDAS certifications issued after January 2008 can verify their status through Region XIII’s database. Administrators should access the Region XIII Web site (http://www5.esc13.net/ild/ip.html) and click on “Verify your certificate.” Where prompted, enter the number on the bottom corner of the certificate. If the certificate is valid, administrators will see the name of the applicant or new hire. If the certificate is not valid, administrators will see a message notifying them that it’s not. Call 512-919-5433 for more information.
Leaders in the Gateway Unified School District just north of Redding, CA, have an unusual reason to celebrate. The district was facing budget cuts that were likely to lead to a pile of pink slips for employees. That is, until a group of 14 teachers and administrators won a $76 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot.
Superintendent John Strohmayer, one of the lucky winners, was stunned by his good fortune and pleased that teachers and other district employees will be the ones to benefit. He and the other players stand to pocket $2.3 million each if they take a cash payout of $47 million ($35.2 million after taxes). The school district’s total budget is $27 million.
The good fortune could be shared by some teachers who weren’t part of the lottery pool. All 14 employees in the pool showed up for work as usual in the days following the win, but Strohmayer believes some of them will choose to retire at the end of the year, saving the jobs of newer teachers.
—“Shasta Lake school staffers hit SuperLotto jackpot,” by M.S. Enkoji, The Sacramento Bee, Feb. 11, 2009.
Students at Julius Corsini Elementary school will get no sympathy from their teachers if they complain about homework.
That’s because the entire teaching staff is seeking certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The rigorous certification process takes up to three years to complete and includes testing to measure teachers’ subject-matter knowledge, compilation of a portfolio of student work, videotapes of classroom lessons, and teacher analysis of their lessons. Teachers log hundreds of hours during and after school to complete the required work.
School Principal Kiela Bonelli is a national board certified teacher and wanted all of Corsini’s teachers to go through the process together to instill a sense of community and retain teachers. The process certainly did that. Corsini had been known to lose as much as half of its staff in a year, but there was no staff turnover this year.
The school is also seeing the results in terms of student achievement. Corsini met federal proficiency standards last year for the first time in more than five years. If the progress holds next year, the school will be free of all requirements for low-performing schools.
Teachers believe the process made them better even though most haven’t earned certification yet. Five of Corsini’s 43 teachers were successful in their first attempt.
—“Corsini Elementary teachers testing for National Board for Professional Teaching Standards,” by Michelle Mitchell, The Desert Sun, Feb. 13, 2009.
