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Employment Law

Can we request applicants’ Facebook passwords?

06/25/2012
Q. We have heard that employers are increasingly screening applicants online, including by going to their Facebook pages. Can we require an applicant who has a private Facebook page to give us the password to that page?

How should we handle nonexempt pay for overnight, off-site meeting trips?

06/25/2012
Q. We sometimes require our hourly employees to commute from the office to a two-day meeting that includes company-sponsored social activities and an overnight stay. They then return to the office after meetings on the second day. How do we pay them for this time?

7th Circuit: Clothes-changing, travel time are not compensable

06/25/2012
In Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp., the 7th Circuit held that an employer wasn’t required to pay employees for time spent changing into and out of work clothes and time spent traveling to and from the locker room and the work area.

Trib pays back $32 million to employee stock plan

06/25/2012
The Tribune Co., the U.S. Department of Labor and Greatbanc Trust Co. have agreed to restore $32 million to the media giant’s employee stock ownership plan.

Court shoots down argument based on bizarre racism ‘proof’

06/25/2012
A federal trial court hearing a discrimination case has refused to accept a new and rather bizarre legal theory. The plaintiff alleged that a principle called “psychological projection” can prove that someone is a racist because he falsely alleges that someone else is racist.

EEOC charges? Don’t break off conciliation too early

06/25/2012
When the EEOC wants to take a dis­crimination case to court, it is required to try to settle the case first. That conciliation process is a two-way street. Employers can’t walk away from the process, expecting a court to dismiss a subsequent lawsuit because the agency didn’t try hard enough.

Policy calls for firing after leave is exhausted? Make sure you apply it consistently

06/25/2012
If you automatically discharge everyone who can’t return to work after exhausting all available leave, chances are a court won’t second-guess those terminations.

Safeguard your personal assets from lawsuits: Prepare to show that your actions were unbiased

06/25/2012
No matter the bad behavior of supervisors, always be ready to prove to a court that you execute your duties without any hint of bias. Doing so may save HR professionals like you from personal liability.

Call lawyer ASAP if your last-chance agreements require employees to give up Title VII rights

06/25/2012
The EEOC has just won a significant legal victory without even having to go to trial. It recently alleged that some last-chance agreements automatically violate Title VII if they prevent employees from filing EEOC actions. The agreements in question contained a clause that had em­­ployees promising not to file discrimination charges in exchange for keeping their jobs.

Illinois EEOC discrimination complaints up sharply in 2011

06/25/2012
Although Illinois accounts for just 4.1% of the nation’s population, 6.1% of all EEOC discrimination charges originated in Illinois in fiscal year 2011.