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Pennsylvania

Employment Lawyer Network:
Pennsylvania

Susan K. Lessack (Editor)

Pepper Hamilton LLP
Pennsylvania Employment Law

LessackS@PepperLaw.com
(610) 640-7806

Click for Full Bio

Susan K. Lessack is a partner in the Berwyn and Philadelphia offices of Pepper Hamilton LLP. She concentrates her practice in employment counseling and employment litigation. Ms. Lessack’s experience includes counseling employers on matters related to compliance with federal and state labor and employment laws, counseling regarding employee discipline and terminations, conducting investigations of employee conduct, including harassment, training employers on their obligations under employment laws and litigation avoidance, and developing employment policies. She defends employers in litigation of employment discrimination claims, wrongful discharge claims, and claims under federal and state employment-related statutes, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law.

Interfering with an internal investigation qualifies as misconduct

06/07/2017
Employees terminated for misconduct aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits. But what is misconduct?

For unemployment, cursing amounts to misconduct

06/07/2017
Pennsylvania workers can be denied unemployment benefits for willful misconduct. A court just decided cursing counts, even if there’s no specific rule against it.

Termination for criminal wrongdoing? Don’t bad-mouth the recently departed

06/07/2017
You’re surely on safe legal grounds to fire an employee for conduct that breaks the law, aren’t you? Of course you are. But that doesn’t mean you’re free to talk about the circumstances.

Beware rescinding religious accommodation! You will probably have to explain why in court

06/07/2017
Employers should carefully document the process by which they deny or approve a religious accommodation. In particular, granting a request and then deciding to revoke it later may make it more difficult to defend in court.

Liability is murky, but employers should still take measures to protect personal data

06/07/2017
Can an employer be held liable for any damage that results from a data breach that leads to identity theft?

Teach managers: No complaining about FMLA

06/07/2017
Make sure all supervisors understand that they must never criticize employees for taking FMLA leave. For employees who need to care for their own serious health condition or that of a close relative, FMLA leave is a right, not a privilege.

Lawsuit: Flight attendants harassed for union roles

06/07/2017
An American Airlines flight attendant based in Philadelphia and a colleague from North Carolina are suing, claiming the airline failed to police online forums and Facebook pages it controls, permitting other employees to harass the women for their union activities.

Past discipline record beats retaliation claim

05/17/2017
Here’s another good reason to consistently document all disciplinary actions: If an employee with a history of problems such as rules violations later engages in protected activity, it will be hard for him to show that the discipline was retaliation for engaging in that protected activity.

How should we track and manage work-at-home time for nonexempt employees?

05/10/2017
Q. We try to be a flexible workplace and sometimes get requests from employees to work from home for a day or two during school breaks and so on. I don’t have a problem with this for exempt employees, but what about hourly ones? How do we track that time?

How should we handle exempt employees’ sick leave taken under our PTO plan?

05/10/2017
Q. The FLSA requires that we pay the full salary for any week in which the exempt employee performs any work. We have a sick leave plan for all employees included in our paid time off—or PTO—plan. If an exempt employee calls off sick, we dock her PTO available, which includes sick or vacation. In other words, our PTO isn’t split into sick and vacation pay. Can we dock this bank until it’s gone before we pay her for nonwork days?