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Texas

EEOC sues amusement park in Austin for disability bias

12/07/2015
An Austin. TX.-area amusement park allegedly took a developmentally disabled janitor for a ride then booted him out of his job. According to an EEOC lawsuit, the man had worked for the company satisfactorily for four years despite having suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child.

Exempt status? Look at job duties, not title

12/07/2015
Too many employers make one key common mistake when deciding which employee to classify as exempt: They think calling a worker a “manager” or “executive” in the title is all it takes. Not true.

Can I make across-the-board pay deductions because one of my employees is stealing?

11/12/2015
Q. I believe at least one of my employees is stealing from the cash register, but I can’t prove which one. I’d like to deduct the register shortfalls from all of the employees. Can I force them to reimburse the company for the register shortfalls?

Must I pay employees for weekend training?

11/12/2015
Q. I have arranged for my nonexempt hourly employees to attend a training session on a weekend, outside of their normal work hours. Must I pay them regular and/or overtime wages for their attendance?

Is nicotine addiction a disability?

11/12/2015
Q. An employee says she must be allowed to take smoke breaks. She claims she is so addicted to nicotine that she has a disability, and that therefore I must accommodate her requirements. If I don’t allow her to take smoke breaks, can she sue me?

5 years in, what’s ahead for Affordable Care Act compliance?

11/12/2015
Phased implementation of the ACA has kept employers busy over the past few years. Here’s your cheat sheet and some tips for what’s ahead.

Austin software firm sued for pregnancy discrimination

11/12/2015
Austin, Tx.-based e-MDs, which develops software for managing medical practices, faces charges it terminated an employee because she took maternity leave.

The gift of time: Is unlimited vacation leave right for your company?

11/12/2015
In the all-out battle to recruit and retain the best qualified, most highly motivated and loyal workforce, more organizations are experimenting with taking a radically flexible approach to monitoring employees’ vacation and personal leave—or even abandoning such tracking entirely.

Internal complaint doesn’t equal whistle-blowing

11/12/2015

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that simply complaining to one’s boss  about allegedly illegal activity is not whistle-blowing protected by the Texas Whistleblower Act. Employees must inform law enforcement.

Agencies: Tell staff they’ll get comp time instead of OT

11/12/2015
The Fair Labor Standards Act allows government agencies to offer comp time in lieu of overtime when employees work more than 40 per week. As long as you clearly let employees know that’s how you will treat OT, they can’t complain later.