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U.S. Master™ Wage-Hour Guide, 2009 Edition
Presents a first approach to the broad and complex controls under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and other statutes regulating employee wages and hours.
Seventeen major television networks and production studios and seven talent agencies announced the settlement of nineteen long standing cases that allege intentional and unintentional age discrimination in the selection and representation of television writers. The announcement was made jointly by the defendants and DC attorney Paul Sprenger, lead counsel for the 157 named plaintiffs and the settlement classes. The settlement is subject to final approval by the California Superior Court in and for the County of Los Angeles.
The defendants strongly deny the plaintiffs' allegations and state that their hiring and/or representation practices fully comply with the law and reflect their commitment to equal employment opportunity. They also note that they all have long-standing anti-discrimination policies and regularly employ or represent substantial numbers of writers over the age of forty.
The parties have been litigating these claims for almost ten years, including several appeals to the California Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. The defendant networks and production companies (including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, The WB, UPN, Columbia TriStar Television, Inc., DW SKG TV L.L.C., Universal Media Studios, Regency Television, Spelling Television, The Carsey-Werner Company LLC, Touchstone Television, Twentieth Century Fox Television, and Warner Bros. Television) and the defendant talent agencies (APA, The Endeavor Agency, The Gersh Agency, Paradigm Talent & Literary Agency, Shapiro-Lichtman, UTA, and the William Morris Agency LLC) have agreed, subject to court approval, collectively to pay a total of $70 million to settle all claims against them and their affiliated companies, including class members' alleged damages, costs and attorneys' fees. Approximately $2.5 million of this total settlement amount will be used to create a Fund for the Future, which will issue grants and loans to settlement class members to further their writing careers and study ways to supplement their pensions and improve access to medical insurance.
Approximately two-thirds of the $70 million settlement payment will be paid by insurance carriers.
The settlement provides a process for settlement class members to apply for an allocated cash distribution from the settlement fund. The Fund for the Future, which will be governed by a board composed of settlement class members, will issue grants and loans for approved projects on a competitive basis.
“I speak for all class counsel in recommending that all settlement class members accept the settlement. We are honored to represent a distinguished and talented group of clients and class members,: stated Sprenger. Plaintiffs and the settlement classes were also represented by, among others, the law firms of Sprenger & Lang, PLLC, Kator Parks & Weiser, PLLC, Law Office of Daniel Wolf, Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers LLP, the AARP Foundation Litigation, Katz, Marshall & Banks, and Blecher & Collins.
“We were fully prepared to oppose class certification and would have prevailed at trial if necessary,” said Seth E. Pierce, of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, Defendants' Liaison Counsel. “But with years of disruptive litigation remaining, and all networks and major television studios and talent agencies participating in the settlement, it made sense to bring these protracted cases to a close.”
Defendants were represented by, among others, the law firms of: Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, Epstein Turner & Song, P.C., Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro, LLP, Kaye Scholer LLP, Judith Salkow Shapiro, P.C., Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Munger, Tolles & Olsen LLP, Murchison & Cummings LLP, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP, and Proskauer Rose LLP.
For more information about this settlement, please visit the Claims Administrator website at: http://www.TVWritersSettlementAdmin.com or Plaintiffs' litigation website at: http://www.TVWritersCounsel.com.
For more information on this and other topics, consult CCH Employment Practices Guide or CCH Labor Relations.
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