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Florida

Former USF football coach sues university over firing

05/11/2010
Former University of South Florida football coach Jim Leavitt has sued the university and its foundation, claiming his contract was improperly terminated. Leavitt lost his job last January after allegedly grabbing a football player by the throat and hitting him.

After decade in court, at least the lawyers can claim victory

05/11/2010
Faced with what you consider a meritless employee lawsuit, it’s often tempting to fight it out in court as a matter of principle. But at some point, it’s better to cut your losses and settle. The only parties that benefit from 10-year legal battles are lawyers, as the following case shows.

Caught on tape: Bias evidence against 2 firms

05/11/2010
Nationwide staffing company Administaff has agreed to settle an EEOC religious discrimination lawsuit stemming from an ugly series of incidents that occurred at one of Florida-based cable-TV company Conn-X’s facilities. The allegations created a perfect storm of co-employer liability: video technology plus employee thuggery added up to evidence that practically begged for an out-of-court settlement.

Firing after delivery can still be pregnancy discrimination

05/11/2010
Here’s an employer argument that didn’t work: It couldn’t have been pregnancy discrimination when we fired her because she wasn’t pregnant anymore.

Prescription alone doesn’t rate FMLA leave

05/11/2010
Some employees think getting a prescription is enough to claim FMLA leave. Fortunately, that is not true. Otherwise, every employee would be entitled to time off just because they took a prescription drug.

Court: Despite their complexity, FLSA regulations still govern ‘dual assignment’ OT

05/11/2010

Some firefighters have additional law enforcement duties. Those employees are sometimes called “dual assignment” employees under the FLSA and must be paid overtime based on which duties they perform most of the time. That means that once firefighters begin spending the majority of their time on law enforcement duties, they’re eligible for overtime pay after working 86 hours in a two-week period. Firefighters must work more than 106 hours to receive overtime pay.

Feel free to discipline or fire if it’s warranted — regardless of employee’s FMLA status

05/11/2010

Thanks to a recent 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, it’s now clear that Florida employers can terminate employees who have FMLA leave coming—if they can prove they would have terminated the employee anyway. To prove that, you must be able to produce solid documentation showing that you were indeed going to terminate the employee whether or not she asked for FMLA leave.

Florida union membership rate falls in 2009

05/11/2010
According to the latest numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida lost 71,000 union jobs in 2009, and now just 5.8% of Floridians belong to unions, compared to 6.4% in 2008.

New worry: RICO charges for hiring illegals

05/11/2010
The immigration landscape keeps changing, and employers must keep up. And now you also have to worry about employees who claim you hired illegal workers as a way to cut labor costs and therefore put legal workers at a competitive disadvantage. Clever attorneys have begun filing RICO Act lawsuits, alleging that some employers are essentially running “mob” operations.

No employee ‘right’ to affair with subordinate

05/05/2010
The U.S. Constitution guarantees citizens the right to free association without government interference. Courts have used that right to strike down laws that prevent members of different ethnic backgrounds from marrying each other. But what about the right of public employees to free association? Can a public employer punish an employee for having a romantic relationship with a subordinate? That was the question recently answered by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.