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Pennsylvania

MPW Industrial Services settles disability bias complaint

10/31/2014
Ohio-based MPW Industrial Services has agreed to settle a disability discrimination suit the EEOC filed on behalf of a job applicant.

You’ll need those notes: Save employee complaints

10/31/2014

If an employee cares enough about a promotion, assignment or training opportunity to contact HR with a complaint, save the note, email or other communication. Here’s why.

Voluntary retirement likely nixes wrongful-discharge suit

10/31/2014
Have you ever urged an employee facing discipline to retire instead of being fired? That’s OK—as long as you provide an alternative, such as allowing the em­­ployee to defend himself by offering his side of the story.

When inconsistency pays: Lack of uniform policy helps get class action decertified

10/31/2014
A federal court has decertified a class-action FLSA case involving several thousand workers at a hospital in Langhorne. The class representative was unable to show that an employer’s policies were uniformly enforced and therefore couldn’t show that the named litigants were “typical” of the entire group.

Prevent fail-to-hire suits by stripping protected characteristics from résumés

10/31/2014
Here’s an easy way to avoid needless failure-to-hire lawsuits: Sim­­ply have someone who is not involved in the initial decision to offer interviews remove risky identifying information from résumés.

Two laws, one condition: ADA disability doesn’t necessarily warrant FMLA leave

10/31/2014
Some employers think disabled employees are automatically eligible for FMLA leave in addition to being entitled to reasonable accommodations. That’s not always true.

New boss isn’t a reasonable accommodation

10/31/2014

Employees who claim that the stress of working for a particular supervisor exacerbates or even creates a disability sometimes think they can request a new boss as a reasonable accommodation. After all, if one supervisor “caused” the disability, then having a different one might “cure” it, allowing the employee to successfully perform her job again. But courts don’t see it that way.

Firing whistle-blower? Prepare for court

10/31/2014

Generally, Pennsylvania employees who aren’t union members or don’t have a written employment agreement are at-will employees who can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. There’s one major exception: Employers can’t fire at-will employees because of their protected characteristics. But there is a second exception gaining prominence in court cases.

Is an employee entitled to take FMLA leave to care for her hospitalized adult child?

09/26/2014
Q. Would FMLA leave apply to an employee who requests leave time to care for her daughter who is over age 21 and married? The daughter’s illness required hospitalization, but her husband is overseas on active duty with the military.

Can we–should we–try to accommodate employee’s traffic anxiety?

09/26/2014

Q. One of our employees claims that traffic gives her anxiety and wants to alter her work schedule to avoid driving during peak travel times. It wouldn’t be a big deal but we’re afraid that if we do it for her, we will start to receive similar claims from other workers who have similar commutes. Do we have to accommodate her?