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Employment Law

Fayette County grocer to settle sex harassment beef

08/23/2012
A Fayette County grocery store will pay $95,000 to settle four sexual harassment complaints filed by female employees who alleged the store’s meat manager harassed them by constantly making crude remarks and touching them.

Train supervisors on proper handling of FMLA return-to-work certifications

08/23/2012
Supervisors who handle employee return-to-work requests following FMLA leave must know what they are doing. Otherwise, your legal risk could rise significantly.

Doc clears return to work? Disability unlikely

08/23/2012

When an employee has a life-threatening and acute illness, he may need time off to recover. That’s a legitimate use of FMLA leave. But what if the employee fully recovers and comes back to work with a clean bill of health from his doctors, yet still feels weaker, more fatigued and not quite back to full health?

Demand immediate stop to demeaning language

08/23/2012
Make sure managers and supervisors understand that belittling name-calling has no place in the workplace and won’t be tolerated. Bans on obscenity aren’t enough. You must also stop other sexist terms, such as referring to a woman as “Barbie.”

A friend indeed: Do Facebook users have privacy rights?

08/23/2012

At last count, the more than 900 million Facebook users have more than 125 billion “friends.” But in the workplace, who is really your friend on Facebook? In this recent case, a manager strong-armed an employee to get access to a co-worker’s Facebook page. Is that an invasion of privacy?

NLRB takes aim at at-will clauses in employee handbooks

08/22/2012
In a continuation of its recent anti-employer rulings, the National Labor Relations Board is now focusing on a staple of employee handbooks—at-will employment clauses that notify employees they can be terminated at any time for any lawful reason.

How must we accommodate breastfeeding?

08/21/2012

Q. One of our employees is on maternity leave. What are our obligations to accommodate her need to breastfeed when she returns to work?

How much flexibility do we have to set up alternative workweek schedules?

08/21/2012

Q. Our company employs nurses that care for patients in their homes. We would like to begin running 12-hour shifts and set up an alternative workweek schedule. What are the rules for instituting an alternative workweek for our employees?

Home nursing agency settles federal wage dispute

08/21/2012
Extended Health Care Private Duty Nursing, a Los Angeles-area home nursing agency, has agreed to pay $654,082 to settle a Fair Labor Standards Act complaint that followed a federal probe into its pay practices.

Court gives EEOC employee another chance to sue

08/21/2012
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has given a government employee another shot at a discrimination lawsuit. The case highlights how complicated the litigation process has become, since apparently even the EEOC doesn’t know the rules.