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Employment Law

Employees’ temporary disabilities don’t trigger ADA protections

07/24/2008
Sometimes injured employees need more time off than the 12 weeks allowed under the FMLA. In such cases, they often ask their employers to allow them to return to their jobs with reasonable accommodations under the ADA. That may be true if their conditions are permanent, but not if their conditions are merely temporary. Employers can deny requests without violating the ADA …

Refusing reinstatement after FMLA? Get your story straight

07/24/2008
Employees who take FMLA leave are entitled to return to their same jobs (or substantially equal ones) after leave ends. But what happens if employees can’t return to their same jobs because they aren’t completely well or able to do the same duties they did before?

Contractor decision costs FedEx $319 million as class action grows

07/24/2008
Official class notices were sent out in June to 27,165 present and former FedEx delivery drivers in the multidistrict lawsuit challenging the company’s independent contractor model. The court certified class-action status for drivers from 19 states, including Pennsylvania …

Pittsburgh McDonald’s faces suit alleging rogue manager

07/24/2008
A former McDonald’s employee is suing the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company for permitting sexual harassment at a Pittsburgh restaurant. Vonda Jackson alleges that an assistant store manager touched her inappropriately …

Never, never on a Sunday

07/24/2008

Timothy Walker was hired in 1995 at the Lafayette, Ind., plant of Alcoa Inc., based in Pittsburgh. Walker also served as a pastor at an area church. In May 1998, when he was appointed head pastor, Walker asked to be excused from work on Sundays …

House votes to make misclassifying independent contractors a third-Degree felony

07/24/2008
A bill approved by the state House in June—the Construction Industry Independent Contractor Act—would make intentionally misclassifying workers as independent contractors a third-degree felony for employers in residential or commercial construction. Cases of negligence would constitute a summary offense …

Workplace bullying by managers: Unpleasant, but is it illegal?

07/24/2008
According a recent Zogby International survey, 37% of U.S. workers report that they’ve been bullied at work. Not surprisingly, they say, the overwhelming majority (72%) of bullies are bosses. Workplace bullying is harassment that’s not necessarily based on an employee’s protected characteristic, such as gender or race. But, unlike harassment based on a protected class, bullying may not be illegal …

Exempt employees and negative leave balances

07/24/2008
Q. I know I must pay exempt employees their full salaries even if they have no accrued benefits in their leave plans and their accounts have negative balances. But can I keep negative balance tallies and then subtract the negative balances as the employees earn more leave? …

Employee handbooks: Are they mandatory?

07/24/2008
Q. We have never had an employee handbook. Do we need one? If so, how do we start? …

Pregnancy discrimination law covers women who’ve had abortions

07/24/2008

By now you know that employers can’t fire or otherwise punish employees because they’re pregnant. But what about employees who choose to have an abortion? Make sure your supervisors know it’s illegal to discriminate against them, too.