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Employment Law

Manage FLSA basics: minimum wage and OT

07/29/2021
Managing a restaurant is tough these days. Staffing is next to impossible. Wages are rising. New covid-19 safety rules have added layers of extra costs. Those are just the new complications. But all the old requirements remain, too, such as complying with the wage-deduction and overtime rules covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

PRO Act gets Senate hearing as unions gain political traction

07/27/2021
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act—pro-union legislation that has already passed in the House of Representatives—was the topic of a lengthy July 22 hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The hearing won’t lead directly to passage in the Senate, but it could elevate union organizing as a campaign issue in the 2022 mid-term elections.

Snapshot: What identity-theft protection benefits should cover

07/27/2021
Demand for benefits protecting employees from identity theft has soared in the last year. Here’s what employers say they want such a plan to provide.

Warn your managers: Loose lips are legal trouble

07/22/2021
Train managers to avoid making comments that can be used against your organization in court. Example: Calling an employee’s disability a “liability” can easily trigger an ADA lawsuit.

Be alert for harassment driven by politics

07/22/2021
The political acrimony that divides the country these days can spill over into work. Employees who believe they have been harassed because of their political views can often find an attorney willing to represent them in a lawsuit.

Jury to Walmart: $125 million for disability bias

07/22/2021
A massive award in an EEOC lawsuit sends a powerful message: Courts have little patience for employers that discriminate against disabled workers, and won’t hesitate to make them pay.

Snapshot: What happens to employees who file EEOC bias complaints?

07/20/2021
An analysis of 683,419 discrimination claims filed from 2012 to 2016 found that complaining to the EEOC rarely turns out well for employees.

Anti-harassment training in the post-COVID era: HR’s new role

07/15/2021
The dramatic return of sexual harassment cases to the forefront of pop culture and employment litigation the past couple years should serve as a wake-up call to human resource professionals to reconsider whether they are relying on outdated and awkward harassment training videos or other boilerplate programs.

Biden orders FTC to review legality of noncompete agreements

07/15/2021
President Biden signed an executive order directing the Federal Trade Commission to examine employers’ use of noncompete agreements and determine whether and when they might violate federal antitrust laws.

No FMLA? Consider time off as ADA accommodation

07/08/2021
When an employee is ill but has no leave available, supervisors often tell them they must show up for work or else be fired. But firing her could be a huge mistake. She might have a disability that could be reasonably accommodated by offering unpaid leave.