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Employment Law

Court: Arbitration OK as long as employee doesn’t have to give up any rights

05/18/2015
A federal court has upheld an arbitration agreement negotiated between a union and an employer that compelled individual arbitration for FMLA claims.

Good news: Court nixes long statute of limitations for rare associational claim

05/18/2015

Employees have many avenues to sue their employers for alleged discrimination. Most are common and have clear-cut deadlines. Some are more exotic. Consider, for example, an employee’s right to sue over her employer’s alleged discrimination against her because of who she associates with. Here’s what happened when one worker waited more than four years to make a so-called Section 1981 civil rights claim.

Focus on performance–not attendance–when firing employee who used FMLA

05/18/2015
Employers that rely on absenteeism to fire such a worker may find themselves in court arguing over which absences and late arrivals should be included or excluded—and hope they got it right.

Minneapolis mayor Hodges calls for more worker-friendly policies

05/18/2015
In her second State of the City address, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called for more regular work schedules, more overtime pay and greater access to paid sick days.

Spell out rules for returning from FMLA leave

05/18/2015
What do you expect an employee to do at the end of approved FMLA leave? Clarify that it’s the employee’s responsibility to notify the employer and check his schedule when he receives medical clearance. Then, if the employee ignores your instructions and doesn’t show up, it’s willful misconduct—making him ineligible for unemployment benefits.

Pay attention to details when disciplining

05/18/2015
The more general your discharge reasons, the easier it is for the former employee to argue that discrimination was in play. Conversely, specific discharge reasons make it much harder to argue discrimination because chances are the fired worker won’t find someone similarly situated (i.e., who broke exactly the same rule) for comparison. See how this played out in a recent case.

24/7 monitoring on company cellphone prompts lawsuit

05/18/2015
A California sales executive is suing her employer after she was fired for disabling an app on her company-provided iPhone that tracked her whereabouts even during nonwork hours.

‘Stop!’ makes harassment complaint count

05/18/2015
Conventional wisdom says that employees who fail to report harassment can’t later surprise us with a lawsuit, since it’s impossible to stop harassment that we never learn about. It turns out that’s not always true.

Hidden disabilities: What’s your duty to accommodate?

05/18/2015
While the Americans with Disabilities Act says you must offer a “reasonable accommodation” to disabled employees, how obvious must the person’s disability be before you fall under that requirement? And what is the employee’s duty to alert you and request the accommodation? As this case shows, courts don’t expect you to play a guessing game with your staff. Employees have a responsibility to explain their conditions and request an accommodation.

NLRB set to clear all cases affected by Noel Canning decision

05/18/2015
According to National Labor Relations Board Chair Mark Gaston Pearce, the NLRB is on track to resolve by June 26 all cases that were returned to it when the Supreme Court ruled that three recess board appointments made in 2012 were unconstitutional.