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Employment Law

Employee or supervisor? Classification affects union eligibility

04/01/2007

One of the toughest tasks for HR is to decide which employees are supervisors. Employers need to know this because supervisors are excluded from a collective bargaining unit for union organizing and voting purposes …

Automatic deductions for mealtime: Legal, but dangerous

04/01/2007

Take note if you automatically deduct meal periods from your hourly employees’ total hours worked: Although making that deduction isn’t technically illegal and doesn’t by itself violate the Fair Labor Standards Act, it’s a dangerous practice …

Investigating EEOC complaint? You’re protected from retaliation, too

04/01/2007

If you’ve ever worried that participation in the internal investigation of an EEOC complaint might land you in trouble, you can take some comfort in a recent federal appeals court decision …

Delta settles allegations that it misused disabled workers’ fund

04/01/2007

Atlanta-based Delta Airlines will pay $70 million into a trust fund for disabled employees and retirees to settle U.S. Labor Department allegations that the airline misused the fund to pay severance packages after the 9/11 attacks …

Johnnie Cochran’s law firm takes aim at poultry processors

04/01/2007

The Cochran Firm, founded by the late Johnnie Cochran of O.J. Simpson-defense fame, has set its sights on the poultry-processing industry, filing lawsuits for back wages and other workplace violations …

Small subsidiary isn’t subject to FMLA if separate from parent

04/01/2007

S.P. Richards Co. (SPR), a Smyrna office-supply wholesaler, recently won an FMLA victory when the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals determined it would be considered separately from its parent company, Genuine Parts Co. …

Should you be allowed to ban guns from employees’ cars?

04/01/2007

The Georgia House and Senate once again are considering bills that would prohibit employers from banning guns from company parking lots …

You can ban employee smoking, but can you ban smokers?

04/01/2007

Employers are always looking for ways to cut health care costs … and smoking and overweight employees may seem like ripe targets for change …

Brace Against Rising Tide of Age-Bias Lawsuits in Florida

04/01/2007

Florida’s population is the oldest in the United States. So perhaps it comes as no surprise that older workers in the state are becoming increasingly litigious in filing Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) lawsuits …

Employers don’t always have to be right, just honest

04/01/2007

When you know it’s time to discharge an employee, don’t let excessive fear of a lawsuit immobilize you. The fact is, employers do make mistakes, but not all their errors lead to liability …