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Employment Law

Post open jobs so everyone knows to apply

03/28/2018
There’s a simple way to prevent lawsuits over missed promotions. Post all internal opportunities and encourage all employees to apply. If you don’t, workers may sue, alleging that the real reason they were denied a promotion was because of some kind of illegal discrimination.

No discrimination without adverse action

03/28/2018
A school counselor who sued because she thought discrimination had cost her a promotion has lost her appeal. Being turned down wasn’t an adverse employment action. And when there’s no adverse action, there can be no discrimination.

Spending bill makes it illegal to confiscate employees’ tips

03/27/2018
Employers won’t be allowed to pocket employees’ tips under the Department of Labor’s controversial proposed tip pooling rule now that President Trump has signed stop-gap spending legislation.

Are truck drivers automatically due overtime?

03/22/2018
Q. Are motor carriers exempt from complying with California’s usual overtime pay requirements?

How should we handle transgender dress code?

03/22/2018
Q. A new employee refuses to comply with our dress code, which has slightly different requirements for men and women, because the individual is transgender. Though the new employee marked “female” on our employment application, the individual has since told us about identifying as a man. Can we require this employee to follow our dress code for women?

Are we allowed to tell women they can’t wear pants at work?

03/22/2018
Q. I am an HR director for a traditional, conservative company and have run into a new issue. When onboarding employees, I always explain our preferred dress code: we prefer women to wear skirts and dresses with pantyhose to work because many of our senior partners are old-fashioned. A new female employee said she would prefer to wear pants. Can we require her to wear a skirt instead?

White House’s 2019 budget tips administration’s labor policy priorities

03/22/2018
While the proposed 2019 budget is needed to fund higher spending for the military, as well as to pay for the construction of a border wall and infrastructure repairs, there were few surprises in the FY2019 budget plan for cutting the budgets of federal labor and employment agencies.

Joint employers can be mutually liable for violations

03/22/2018
When separate entities seem to share common ownership and one dictates how the other operates, they may be joint employers. That may make them mutually liable for employment law violations.

Employee must show how chronic pain prevents work

03/22/2018
In order to win a disability discrimination case, a worker who claims she is disabled by pain has to show how that affects her ability to work. If the employee misses work but doesn’t explain why or that it’s related to her disability, she doesn’t have a case.

Telecommuting isn’t always a reasonable accommodation for disabled workers

03/22/2018
Some employees who need reasonable accommodations may insist on having the option to work from home. That may be a workable solution for some positions. However, it won’t be appropriate for other jobs that require direct supervision or the employee’s physical presence in the workplace.