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Employment Law

State worker claims he was fired for airing dirty political laundry

06/11/2008
Matthew Magalis sued the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), claiming he was fired for reporting corruption. Magalis admitted that in October 2006, he gave the Chicago Tribune a report about a co-worker doing political work on state time for Gov. Rod Blagojevich …

Expunged convictions set hidden trap for Illinois employers

06/11/2008

If you are an Illinois employer with 15 or more employees and your application asks job-seekers to detail their criminal histories, expunged criminal records pose a hidden trap for you …

Must we pay for unapproved overtime?

06/11/2008
Q. Our company requires employees to obtain their supervisors’ prior approval for all overtime. Our management takes the position that it does not need to pay overtime if employees don’t get approval first. My understanding is that all hours worked must be paid. Which is correct? …

Can we tap company phones to investigate possible theft?

06/11/2008
Q. Our company distributes steel from one of our warehouses. A substantial amount of product has gone missing. We suspect that our warehouse manager is conspiring with one of our former employees to take it, possibly creating a false paper trail to cover the theft. Our camera surveillance is not picking up any irregular activity on the loading dock. We believe the manager may be talking to the ex-employee from his office phone. Can we legally monitor the manager’s phone without violating any privacy rights that he might have? …

FMLA and termination for failing to submit certification

06/11/2008
Q. Our company has an employee who has taken FMLA leave to care for his sick child. His attendance record has been poor, but we have not documented our warnings as well as we should have. Our company has a rule that an employee has 15 days to have the treating doctor sign and return a form certifying the medical condition of the family member who is sick. We never received the signed form. The employee says that his doctor sent it. Can we terminate the employee? …

Minnesota Supreme Court clarifies employer penalties

06/10/2008
The Supreme Court of Minnesota has issued a decision clarifying penalties under the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA). The ruling makes it clear that employers that don’t follow the law and don’t maintain the required wage-and-hour records may face large fines payable to the state …

Little things can add up to discrimination and harassment

06/10/2008
Do your managers and supervisors understand that ostracizing an employee can backfire? Do they make diligent efforts to train everyone equally and include everyone in work-related social events? If not, it’s time to remind them …

Is that harassment—Or just a personality clash?

06/10/2008
When an employee complains about alleged discrimination or harassment by a supervisor, take a careful look at what each person says is happening. As the following case shows, sometimes just a poor working relationship—not discrimination—is the source of the problem …

When worker complains, find out if she’s a ‘Serial sue-er’

06/10/2008
Sometimes, you can tell how seriously to take an EEOC or other discrimination complaint by checking to see if the employee (or applicant) has filed other discrimination lawsuits in the past. If the complaint turns into a court case, an employee’s pattern of frivolous litigation may become powerful evidence a judge or jury will want to consider …

No unjust enrichment claims allowed in state and federal FLSA cases

06/10/2008
Sometimes, attorneys representing disgruntled employees will try anything to make the charges stick. Now the federal district court in Minnesota has ruled that plaintiffs can’t add state unjust enrichment claims to standard overtime claims under the federal FLSA and Minnesota’s similar state law …