• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Gov’t staff can speak out on matters of public importance

09/09/2015
Public employees retain free speech rights under the First Amendment and can’t be punished for speaking out if they do so as citizens and not in their role as a government employee.

Texas court issues injunction preventing customer poaching

09/09/2015
A federal court in Texas has issued an injunction preventing a former salesperson for a plastics company from soliciting customers on behalf of his new employer. The competitor had hired the employee despite a nondisclosure and nonsolicitation agreement he had signed.

Executive order grants paid sick leave to fed contractors’ employees

09/09/2015
President Obama picked Labor Day to announce an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide paid sick leave benefits to their employees, including 300,000 workers who currently have no paid leave.

Trying to ensure pay equality? Be sure to account for even slight differences in duties

09/09/2015

Under the Equal Pay Act, workers of one sex who perform substantially similar jobs are entitled to the same pay as their counterparts of the opposite sex. But it doesn’t take much to make jobs dissimilar enough to thwart direct comparisons. Keep this in mind when preparing job descriptions and explaining pay differences.

It’s sometimes OK to fire disabled employee, but it’s a mistake to cite medical costs

09/09/2015
Before terminating someone who is disabled, make sure that you don’t inadvertently create a reason for them to sue you.

Dallas doctors’ service to pay for CEO’s harassment

09/09/2015
Dallas-based physician outsourcing group EmCare will pay dearly for its CEO’s raunchy behavior. Following a jury verdict awarding $499,000 to three former employees for sexual harassment, the federal judge in charge of the case has ordered the firm to pay an additional $183,000 in attorneys’ fees to the lead plaintiff in the case.

OSHA protects accounting whistle-blowers

09/09/2015

Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, commonly known as SOX, employees who report alleged accounting irregularities internally and to OSHA are protected from retaliation if their employer punishes the activity. Making simple statements that aren’t very specific can be enough to meet the employee’s reporting requirement under the law. It’s enough that the employee reasonably believes that he is reporting wrongdoing. He doesn’t have to know the details, just that it probably violates the law.

Don’t let pettiness fuel years of litigation

09/09/2015
Here’s an important lesson to impart to supervisors and managers: Petty fights and anger over perceived injustices that lead to resignations or termination may spur multiyear litigation and cost hundreds of thousands in legal fees, lost time and damage awards.

Smoke but no fire on employment law bills

09/09/2015
The U.S. Senate returned from its annual summer recess on Sept. 8 to face a legislative calendar dominated by debate about the nuclear arms treaty with Iran and passing a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1. That has pushed a robust employment law agenda onto the back burner.

HR orgs pan DOL’s proposed overtime rule

09/09/2015
Fewer opportunities to work overtime, less workplace flexibility for employers and employees alike: That’s the likely result of the Department of Labor’s proposed rule to more than double the salary threshold that makes white-collar managers eligible for overtime pay, according to comments submitted to the DOL by the Society for Human Resource Management and WorldatWork, two prominent HR organizations.