Alaska Employment Law

TSA reverses self on HWE claim:  Fairbanks employee attorney Robert Sparks has succeeded in convincing the Transportation Security Administration to reverse its earlier denial of a sexual harassment claim on timeliness grounds.  Sparks argued that the employee had notified her supervisor of the issues within the 45-day counseling period, and that the supervisor had not alerted her to the need to contact an EEO counselor within that period.  The TSA manager of the Formal Complaints Division of the Office of Civil Rights and Liberties responded by restoring the HWE claim to the employee’s EEO complaint.  

The Alaska Legislature and the open meetings requirement:  Acting Alaska Attorney General Rick Svobodny’s recent opinion - on the Legislature’s need to meet in open session to reject a gubernatorial appointment of a replacement legislator (here, Tim Grussendorf) - has been published at 2009 WL 1103835.  Svobodny relies, in part, on a 1963 opinion issued by then-Assistant Attorney General Avrum Gross.