Monday, April 19, 2010

A new local leader for workers' rights

Chron.com
By L.M. SIXEL
Houston Chronicle
April 9, 2010, 11:33PM

The combination of wanting to leave Boston's snow and slush with the chance to work for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission led Martin Ebel to Houston.
Ebel, previously a commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, recently joined the EEOC in Houston as its new deputy director. Before working for the Massachusetts commission, Ebel was an employment lawyer in Boston focused mostly on cases for management clients but also representing individual employees.
Ebel is a double-above-the-knee amputee and an avid golfer. He participates as an instructor in a program called “The First Swing” to teach golf and health care professionals how to use golf as a rehabilitative tool, including for those in the military who lost their limbs.
He sat down with Chronicle reporter L.M. Sixel to talk about how the EEOC is focusing on potential class-action cases, his goals for streamlining the Houston office and the ease of getting around Houston in a wheelchair. Excerpts follow.
Q: What's the biggest difference between Boston and Houston from an employment law perspective?
A: I think the biggest difference is the leanings of the court system in Texas compared to Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, the courts tend to be more pro-employee than they are here. I expected a difference. I didn't expect it to be as big a difference as it turned out to be.

Full Story: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6952564.html

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