• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Equal opportunity discipline: Don’t let rogue bosses subvert your anti-harassment policy

07/05/2012

If you set rules for employees to follow, then make sure everyone in the organization follows them. That includes supervisors. Otherwise, your policies aren’t worth the paper they are written on.

Need to contact employee out on FMLA leave? Be sure to document reason for the call

07/05/2012

Employees on FMLA leave are entitled to be left alone. Super­visors shouldn’t send work home with the employee or call constantly to check up. That could be considered FMLA leave interference. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t get in touch with the em­­ployee about important and urgent matters or enforce your broader call-in policies.

HR director sues over president’s hiring preferences

07/05/2012
The former HR director at J. Chris­­to­­­pher Capital has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the Manhattan ven­­ture capital firm, claiming the company’s founder stated that he only wanted gay men and beautiful women working for him.

How to handle vague FMLA certification

07/05/2012
Here’s good news for employers trying to manage FMLA leave and prevent abuse: If an employee’s FMLA certification form is incomplete or vague, you can deny leave as long as you gave him a chance to correct the deficiencies.

Sometimes, pregnancy rises to a disability

07/05/2012
Generally, pregnancy isn’t a disability under the ADA, nor are pregnancy-related complications. But under some limited circumstances—when pregnancy complications cause separate medical conditions that persist after birth—the employee may qualify as disabled under the ADA.

Paying nonexempt employees a salary? Be sure to get agreement on hourly rate

07/05/2012

Determining the amount of overtime pay depends on identifying an em­­ployee’s hourly rate for the first 40 hours. That can sometimes be more complicated than it sounds, especially for organizations that pay their hourly employees a set amount for their entire workweek, including overtime.

Does Texas have any unusual protected classes?

07/03/2012
Q. Other than race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, age and disability, are there any other protected classifications under Texas law that might limit an employer’s right to terminate an at-will worker employed?

Supreme Court: Pharmaceutical reps exempt from FLSA OT rules

07/03/2012
The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that pharmaceutical sales representatives are indeed outside salespeople under the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act in a case that could have far-reaching effects on other wage-and-hour issues.

Was Plano dismissal a layoff–or age bias?

07/03/2012
An electrician with 25 years of service to the Plano Independent School District has sued, alleging he was fired because of his age, not because the district needed to cut staff.

Longview nursing home slapped with retaliation suit

07/03/2012
A Tyler nurse is suing the nursing home where she once worked, claiming she was fired in retaliation for filing an EEOC complaint.