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Employment Law

Beware offer letters that seem to imply that they are employment contracts

03/30/2012
If you want to retain the ability to fire at will, make sure any memos, letters or emails detailing a job offer don’t create an employment contract. That means never promising that termination will be for cause or for any list of reasons.

Employee out of FMLA leave and unable to do the job? It’s time to consider termination

03/30/2012

You probably know that when a disabled employee has used up all his FMLA leave entitlement, he may still be entitled to reasonable accommodations under the ADA. It’s legitimate to offer additional leave as a reasonable accommodation. However, at some point, time off can be a burden for employers, especially when the employee can’t estimate when he will be ready to return. In that case, it may be time to terminate the employee.

No matter how many clients, temps must still get OT pay

03/30/2012
Dallas-based staffing agency Temp Team has agreed to settle FLSA violations un­­covered during a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation. The $244,104 settlement will be split among 252 current and former employees.

Texas Supreme Court rules on jury-trial waivers

03/30/2012
The Texas Supreme Court has handed an important victory to Texas employers eager to avoid jury trials for employment disputes: It ruled that, as long as the employees are at-will workers, threatening to fire them for refusing to give up the right to a jury trial does not invalidate the agreement.

Treat arbitration like any other litigation

03/30/2012
Employers sometimes assume that because a case is in arbitration, they don’t have to take the case as seriously as they would during courtroom proceedings. That can be a big mistake.

Citibank settles age discrimination complaint for $500,000

03/30/2012
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FIRA) has ruled Citibank violated state anti-discrimination laws when it fired Edward Laurence Bowne in 2008—and ordered the bank to pay Bowne $500,000 in compensation.

Thorough investigations win discharge lawsuits

03/30/2012
While you can fire an at-will employee for any legal reason or no reason at all, your best bet is to conduct a thorough and fair investigation. It’s much easier to persuade a judge that a discrimination complaint is meritless if you can point to records showing exactly why you fired the worker.

Don’t let complaint derail improvement plan

03/30/2012

Some employees seem to believe they can stop disciplinary action just by complaining about alleged discrimination. That isn’t true. A supervisor who has begun a push for improvement can and should continue with the effort despite the complaint. There’s no reason to worry that legitimate management amounts to retaliation.

Interns and the FLSA: When do they have to be paid?

03/30/2012
On the surface, internship arrangements look like a win-win: The employer gets free labor. The intern gets valuable training and builds skills. But before you get carried away by the prospect of marvelous production for virtually no cost, let’s have a reality check.

Must we allow vacation leave accrual while employees are out on FMLA leave?

03/29/2012
Q. I’m under the impression that our company is obligated to give employees all vacation accrued up to the time of their FMLA leave, but we’re not obligated to let employees accrue vacation leave during their FMLA leave. Am I right?