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Texas

Employment Lawyer Network:
Texas

Michael W. Fox (Editor)

Texas Employment Law

Michael.Fox@OgletreeDeakins.com
(512) 344-4711

Click for Full Bio

Michael W. Fox, Esq., of Ogletree Deakins in Austin, has more than 30 years of experience representing employers. He has been Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1980 and is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He has been regularly listed in the Best Lawyers in America in Labor and Employment Law, as a Texas Monthly ’Super Lawyer’ in employment litigation.

How to pay hourly workers for weekend travel time

12/01/2006

Q. How do you pay hourly employees who are traveling on a day that’s not considered a workday, like Saturday or Sunday? What if they normally have a 10-minute commute to the office but instead they have to go to the airport, and the airport is an hour from their home?

Should we require harassment claims be in writing?

12/01/2006

Q. Our new plant manager wants me to revise our sexual harassment policy to require that complaints be in writing. He says this will formalize the procedure and help ensure that only valid complaints are filed. I don’t think this is a good idea. Is it?

Docking employee’s pay for missing laptop

12/01/2006

Q. An employee who recently quit hasn’t returned a company-owned laptop computer worth over $1,000. Can we withhold the value of the computer from the employee’s last paycheck?

Injured worker can collect workers’ comp and sue

12/01/2006

Q. One of our employees badly hurt himself when he tripped over some equipment that had been left by the building maintenance. Workers’ comp covered his medical bills and lost wages, but he also sued the building for negligence. Now we have a letter from the office building demanding that we defend them in the lawsuit and telling us we are responsible. How can that be? I thought we were protected by workers’ comp from any suit involving an employee injury?

Texas Supreme Court eases limits on noncompete pacts

11/01/2006

If you’ve shied away from using noncompete clauses with employees in the past due to the unpredictability of their legality in Texas, it’s time to rethink that strategy. Reason: The Texas Supreme Court last month reversed its 12-year-old precedent on compete contracts for at-will employees, and the news is good for Texas employers …

Workers must suffer ‘Adverse action’ to win bias case

11/01/2006

Federal law says you must grant employees "reasonable accommodations" for their religious beliefs and practices. But that doesn’t mean that any employees who are told they must work on their Sabbath have an automatic lawsuit …

Isolated comments on accent not enough to prove bias

11/01/2006

No doubt, your managers and supervisors know not to ridicule someone’s accent or way of speaking. But what if an employee’s communication skills suffer on account of his other accent? Are you prohibited from mentioning that accent and recommending remedial help to better communications?

Ban on ‘Union Yes’ Button Isn’t Free-Speech Violation

11/01/2006

Texas public employers have broad rights to prohibit certain kinds of speech in the workplace, but those rights aren’t unfettered …

Review job contracts carefully after a merger

11/01/2006

In this age of mergers and acquisitions, it’s increasingly common for employees to find themselves employed by a different entity almost overnight. When such changes take place, the new organization will often rewrite employment contracts or noncompete and trade-secret agreements to reflect the new employment reality. If you do update and rewrite such employment contracts, be sure to include a statement that the agreement is the entire understanding between the parties. If you don’t, you may find your organization also bound by the terms of any earlier agreement …

Study: Good-Looking people suffer a ‘Beauty penalty’ at work

11/01/2006

Studies in the past have shown that attractive people generally earn a "beauty premium." That is, they earn more money, enjoy better performance reviews and people view them as being more intelligent and trustworthy. But according to a recent study published by Rice University, those studies may have it wrong …