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Employment Law

What is the protocol on asking for doctors’ notes?

03/23/2015
Q. When an employee calls off sick for more than one day, is there a minimum amount of days off required before an employer can ask for a doctor’s note? Can we ask the specific reason for the absence?

New California laws close loopholes, address labor contractor issues

03/21/2015
A flurry of bills signed at the end of the 2014 legislative session attempted to clarify liability in cases of joint employment.

Wipe out overt bias before it’s too late

03/19/2015
Once an employee shows a judge that there is direct evidence she was discriminated against because of her race, it’s too late to come up with much of a defense. That’s why it is crucial to wipe out obvious discrimination once and for all. Don’t ever let a supervisor’s overtly racist comments go unpunished.

Wellness: Big benefit or Big Brother?

03/19/2015
For several years, proponents have touted wellness programs’ success in lowering health care costs, decreasing absenteeism and raising employee morale. But those laudable goals haven’t insulated wellness programs from controversy.

What to do with painter who can’t use ladders?

03/17/2015
What should you do if an employee has a disability that prevents him for doing his job? The ADA says you must try to find a reasonable accommodation. But who decides what’s reasonable?

Supreme Court allows DOL rules reversal

03/13/2015
On March 9, the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Labor, which regulates the kind of employees who must receive overtime for working more than 40 hours per week, is free to flip-flop on its interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act without notice or an opportunity to comment on the proposed change.

ASAP, get rid of materials that might be offensive

03/13/2015
Regularly check your workplace for potentially offensive materials. An isolated incident won’t be held against you, but a pattern of tolerance could be.

Org chart irrelevant in Equal Pay Act cases

03/12/2015
An employee who sues under the Equal Pay Act—alleging that she was paid less than someone of the opposite sex—has a tough case to make if she bases her case strictly on how much she was paid.

Do we need to accommodate smokers?

03/11/2015
Q. We currently have a designated smoking area outside our building. Recently, an employee who is extremely sensitive to certain odors complained that smoke was drifting through our ventilation system into her work space. May we prohibit smoking in certain areas outside our building? If so, do we need to provide another location for our employees to smoke?

Wronged consulate employee seeks $2.3 million in legal fees

03/11/2015
A former employee at the Twin Cities Norwegian consulate is asking the country to pay her legal fees after she won a $270,000 equal pay judgment. A federal judge ruled that the woman was paid $30,000 less than a male employee performing comparable work.