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Employment Law

Warning: Even legit firing can lead to lawsuit

11/04/2008

You’d think terminating someone for obviously gross misconduct and behavior that was simply unacceptable would be a slam-dunk. No chance such an employee could bring a lawsuit, right? Wrong. There’s always the potential for a discrimination suit …

Minor schedule change isn’t an adverse employment action

11/04/2008

Judges sometimes use common sense. Take, for example, a recent case involving a woman who sued after her employer changed her days off so that she had to work six days straight.

Employee or independent contractor? It matters for FLSA

11/04/2008

True independent contractors aren’t covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Employees are. But sometimes it’s hard to tell who is a true independent contractor and who isn’t.

EEOC sues Sonic for harassment

11/04/2008

The EEOC has filed a lawsuit against a Sonic drive-in restaurant located in Kingwood, alleging that several female teen employees were subjected to sexual harassment.

Alleged discrimination brings claims against insurance agency

11/04/2008

The EEOC recently filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against Time Insurance Agency of Austin, alleging pregnancy discrimination against a female job applicant.

Was Galveston retirement home biased against older worker?

11/04/2008

The EEOC has been busy this fall in Texas. The agency recently sued the Edgewater Retirement Community in Galveston for allegedly refusing to hire a 78-year-old job applicant.                        

When USERRA conflicts with changing organizational needs

10/30/2008

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) grants service members re-employment rights when they notify their employers of their intent to return to work after being released from active duty. But what happens when an employer finds that its business needs have changed while the employee was on active duty? …

Do we have any recourse when employee badmouths us on Facebook?

10/30/2008

Q. We discovered that an employee has posted false, profane statements about our company and managers on his Facebook page. What can we do? …

How to handle overtime for nonexempt employees on salary

10/30/2008

Q. We pay our nonexempt employees weekly on a salary basis, no matter how many hours they work during the week. These employees have not worked overtime hours in the past. However, the company’s operations have changed, and we expect to require some overtime work in the near future. Will we have to pay the employees time-and-a-half for those overtime hours? …

Lawyer’s letter says don’t destroy ex-worker’s records—now what?

10/29/2008

Q. My department recently received a “litigation hold letter” from an attorney’s office. It instructed us not to delete or destroy any documents belonging to a former employee of ours … While we have a few documents related to this person’s employment, the significant majority of her personnel documents were destroyed through our normal record-retention process. Are we required to comply with this litigation hold letter …? If so, what can we do about the documents already deleted?