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Employment Law

Punctuality isn’t ‘essential’ for all jobs

06/01/2000
Massachusetts Health Research Institute lets employees start work any time between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and leave after working seven-and-a-half hours. But data-entry worker Michael Ward usually arrived between 9:10 …

Ban all age bias; states OK youth-bias claims

06/01/2000
Kimberly Zanni, a 31-year-old-account executive, was fired and replaced by an older, less qualified woman. One supervisor had told Zanni that she sounded …

You don’t have to wear blinders to an applicant’s known disability

06/01/2000
Sheet-metal worker Roosevelt Harris received his jobs through a union hiring hall. During one assignment, he complained to the union that the company failed to accommodate his carpal tunnel syndrome. A …

Padding your reasons for firing can build case against you

06/01/2000
Daniel McInnis was a full-time instructor until the new college president opted not to renew his contract. The president gave two reasons. But in his zeal to justify those reasons, he …

Avoid snap decision on whether illness would qualify under FMLA

06/01/2000
When her three-year-old son awoke with a high fever, congestion and an earache, Juanita Caldwell got permission from an assistant manager to miss her morning …

Misleading your employees risks ‘career fraud’ claim

06/01/2000
After General Dynamics reached a settlement in a class-action overtime case, other employees at the company were given the opportunity to “opt in” on the lawsuit in late 1993. But managers allegedly told …

Giving better-than-deserved reviews may be legal, but it’s unwise

06/01/2000
Six months after Richard Cullom began work as a staffing specialist at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital, his supervisor found his work …

Make sure you have valid reasons for unequal pay

06/01/2000
Valid reasons can include seniority, merit, quality of work, speed of production or, in this case, experience level. Comtech Manufacturing said it paid a male production supervisor 50 cents more an …

Don’t try docking pay for smoking breaks.

06/01/2000
An employer who allowed his workers to take a series of short smoking breaks had to compensate them for the time. Reason: Such approved short breaks (20 minutes or less) are …

Fix classification errors promptly or ‘window of correction’ will close

06/01/2000
A group of managers and registered nurses who worked for Santa Clara County, Calif., were classified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), making …