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Employment Law

They’re not too old to spend $6.2 million

02/25/2010

Two scientists fired from the Valley Forge chemical company PQ Corp. are millionaires following a federal jury’s verdict in their age discrimination lawsuit. The two, a 60-year-old woman and a 56-year-old man, filed age bias charges against PQ after the company implemented a mass layoff in 2005. The scientists alleged that all of the employees laid off were over age 55.

Horsham software firm settles age bias suit for $175K

02/25/2010

Astea International has agreed to settle an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) lawsuit for $175,000. The EEOC brought the suit on behalf of 47-year-old Frank Fesnak, who was fired from his position as the Horsham-based company’s vice president of strategic alliances.

Must we track hours for exempt salespeople?

02/25/2010

Q. We have salespeople who work on a straight commission basis. Do we need to track their hours?

Can we forbid employees from gathering in a prayer group while on breaks?

02/25/2010

Q. A group of our employees met during their break to have group prayer. A supervisor complained to our president, who said we should tell employees they can’t pray on break time, nor can they pray during lunch unless they leave the building. Some employees are upset. Is this policy legal?

The legal danger of playing ‘peek-a-boo’ with job postings

02/24/2010

Job postings go up … they come down. They go up … they come down. It all seems quite normal. That is, unless a job posting is pulled down to avoid a specific type of candidate. As this new case shows, you can’t delist a job or try to hide the position when you don’t like who applies. Peek-a-boo, the court will catch you!

How to apply FLSA’s administrative exemption

02/22/2010

Employers that want to avoid paying overtime to white-collar workers often invoke the Fair Labor Standards Act’s administrative exemption. For the administrative exemption to be legitimate, all of the following must be true:

Injured worker reapplying? Beware ADA suit

02/22/2010

You may be naturally disinclined to rehire a former employee who was off work for years because of an on-the-job injury. But that could be a big legal mistake, especially since he is now disabled.

Same offense, different circumstances: The punishment can fit the crime

02/22/2010

The cardinal rule for employers is to punish like offenses the same way. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t have some flexibility. For example, when two employees break the same rule, the underlying reasons might be considerably different. If you decide to punish one more severely than the other, document why you don’t consider the circumstances the same.

Don’t try to avoid OT pay by misclassifying technicians as exempt professionals

02/22/2010

If you classify some employees as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s professional exemption, make sure their jobs truly meet the criteria. Otherwise, you risk a potential wage-and-hour lawsuit for unpaid overtime.

Act fast on harassment to show you won’t tolerate it

02/22/2010

Never ignore sexual harassment complaints. Instead, take quick action against insensitive, rude or crude co-workers. That goes a long way toward showing a court that you take harassment seriously and want it to end.