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Employment Law

‘Cowboy as Religion’ and 5 Other Classic Employee Misunderstandings of Employment Law

11/17/2015
HR professionals live in a world where sentences like, “Oh no, the EEOC says we violated the FMLA and ADA, and the DOL is looking at our BYOD policy,” actually trigger fear instead of just wide-eyed confusion. So HR may be taken aback by how little some employees understand about the laws that are meant to protect them in the workplace. This fall, we asked HR professionals to share their best stories of situations in which employees totally misunderstood, misinterpreted or completely maligned an employment law or company policy. Here are some of the real winners …

New EEOC rules: How do wellness plans interact with genetic-bias law?

11/17/2015
The EEOC issued a proposed rule earlier this month that aims to clarify how employers’ wellness programs would interact with a section of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

DOL official: Overtime rules coming in late 2016

11/17/2015
Don’t look for release of those controversial changes to federal overtime laws anytime soon.

Race-based restrooms? Write the settlement check

11/16/2015
A black female worker at a North Carolina health care company filed a race discrimination claim, saying the owner repeatedly used the N-word and maintained racially segregated restroom facilities. The court said her hostile environment claim could proceed to trial.

Calling boss ‘Scrooge’ online: Protected?

11/13/2015

Q. An employee brought to the attention of his supervisor that a co-worker had posted a comment on social media saying that her supervisor is Scrooge, that the supervisor is probably planning to fire a bunch of people right before the holidays, and that everyone should complain about her unfair behavior so that the supervisor is the one who will get fired. The company has a social media policy that prohibits making disparaging comments about it or its employees. Can the company discipline the posting co-worker for these comments?

How do we calculate FMLA eligibility on rehire?

11/13/2015
Q. We have an employee who was employed with our company from May, 2010 until April, 2011. The employee was rehired in 2015 and worked approximately nine months. Has the employee satisfied the requirement of 12 months of employment despite the three-year gap in employment under the FMLA?

Employee or independent contractor? Avoiding misclassification

11/13/2015
On July 15, the U.S. Department of Labor issued new guidance regarding the classification of independent contractors as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, warning employers that the DOL considers most workers to be employees. Employer liability for misclassification can be substantial, making it crucial for companies to exercise caution when classifying workers as independent contractors.

Don’t ignore complaints of workers’ missing tips

11/13/2015
Money left for workers in places where tipping is typical becomes the property of the workers for which the money is intended. If employees tell you that the money is disappearing and that a supervisor is responsible, check out the allegations.

Settlement with back pay? Get your attorney involved

11/13/2015
Are you settling a discrimination case with termination and a back or front pay agreement? Be sure to work with counsel to find the most effective way to apply the payment. Done properly, a back pay or front pay lump sum may mean the employee can’t collect unemployment compensation payments.

Employer–not vendor–is liable for fitness-for-duty exam GINA violations

11/13/2015

Make sure that any entity you hire to conduct fitness-for-duty exams understands their responsibility to exclude genetic information requests from the determination. Otherwise, you may be liable for Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act violations. The employee doesn’t have to add the providers to the lawsuit.