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Ohio

Don’t force FMLA leave unless health condition is serious

12/01/2007

The FMLA allows employers to designate time off as FMLA leave even if employees want to use other time off (such as vacation and personal days) to deal with serious health issues. But be careful—if the time off turns out to be for a health condition that wasn’t serious and you later deny FMLA leave because the employee has none in the bank, she can charge you with interference with her FMLA rights …

Consider paying for lunch breaks to avoid overtime claims

12/01/2007

Overtime lawsuits are becoming an epidemic. Lawyers file class-action lawsuits at the first hint that employees worked “off the clock,” either before the workday started or by working through parts of their unpaid lunch periods. There’s a simple way to avoid problems …

 

Beware informal policy on returning after pregnancy

12/01/2007

Many employers try to simplify medical leave policies by adopting the same eligibility requirements set by the FMLA. But those same employers sometimes make exceptions for select employees, especially if they are seen as too valuable to lose to a short medical leave. Watch out if that’s your informal practice. Denying that flexibility to pregnant employees probably violates the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act …

Collective bargaining terms mean no unemployment comp for pregnant employees

12/01/2007

Employees who must stop working at a certain point in their pregnancies because a union agreement compels the leave are not entitled to unemployment compensation in Ohio. That’s true even if the pregnant employee could physically work and would have done so if it were an option …

Union members can’t use ‘Public policy’ violation as basis for retaliation claim

12/01/2007

Ohio state law may provide limited protection for employees fired in violation of “public policy.” But as the following case shows, those cases are limited to at-will employees, not those who have the protection of union representation or a union contract. Such employees don’t need the same protection that at-will employees may need …

It’s not discrimination, it’s just part of the job

12/01/2007

For a decade, the Chagrin Falls post office allowed mail carrier Martin Tepper to take Saturdays off to observe the Sabbath. In 2002, under pressure from fellow carriers tired of working extra weekends, the U.S. Postal Service began scheduling him for Saturday duty. Tepper sued in federal court in 2004 claiming religious discrimination …

AK Steel uses VEBA to settle retiree health care lawsuit

12/01/2007

AK Steel settled a lawsuit with a group of retirees from its Middletown Works by transferring their health care coverage to a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA) trust. The 4,600 retirees sued in 2006 after the company moved to cut retiree health care costs to improve its competitiveness …

Stolen disc costs two jobs, plus a week of vacation

12/01/2007

An Ohio Office of Management and Budget intern was fired, and a manager has resigned after someone broke into the intern’s car and stole a computer disc containing sensitive state payroll and accounting information …

Like a nice, informal timekeeping system?

12/01/2007

The city of Akron will have to sell bonds to cover a $985,000 settlement with two former workers in the permits and plans division. The employees sued after the city destroyed a cache of the women’s time sheets showing comp time owed for extra hours they worked …

Airline apologizes for playing fashion police in Columbus

12/01/2007

Southwest Airlines, headquartered in Dallas, apologized to a male passenger who was forced to change his shirt by an airline employee at the Port Columbus International Airport. The passenger’s shirt referred to a fishing shop called “Master Baiter” …