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Employment Law

Employee gripes on Facebook: Can we draw a line?

10/18/2011
Q. You’ve written that we can’t fire employees for their “concerted activity,” like talking about pay or bosses, and we may have to live with certain complaining via social media. But are there limits?

Personality clash or hostile work environment? It depends on hypothetical ‘reasonable person’

10/17/2011

Overly sensitive employees can interpret anything negative as hostile. But often what is subjectively hostile is just unpleasant from an objective standpoint, the result of an apparent personality conflict. It all depends on how a hypothetical “reasonable person” who finds himself in the same situation would view the matter.

Sometimes it’s OK to fire before parental leave

10/17/2011
Many employees believe that the FMLA and its state counterpart, the Minnesota Parental Leave Act (MPLA), absolutely prevent an employer from terminating someone who asks for or takes parental leave. That’s not the case.

Muslim DA’s bias suit against Youngstown moves on

10/12/2011
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a Youngstown prosecutor’s religious discrimination suit against the city. Basil Ally complained to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and then sued, alleging he had been discriminated against because of his Muslim faith. His lawsuit claims co-workers sometimes teased him, suggesting that he was connected to Islamic terrorists.

Feds offer amnesty for contractor misclassification

10/12/2011
If you’ve been worried that some of your workers may be incorrectly classified as independent contractors, but leery about opening a legal can of worms to fix potential problems, Uncle Sam is offering to cut you a break.

If FMLA will soon expire, start interactive ADA process

10/12/2011

If you immediately fire employees who have used up their FMLA leave—without considering whether they may be disabled and need reasonable ADA accommodations—you may be making a big mistake. Instead, let the employee know you want to begin the interactive accommodations process right before FMLA leave runs out.

Minor concentration problems don’t count as disabilities

10/12/2011
In today’s world of work, lots of em­­ployees experience stress, which sometimes manifests itself in panic or anxiety attacks or problems concentrating. But that does not mean the employee is disabled.

Court takes novel approach to limit frivolous appeals–making employees pay legal fees

10/12/2011
Many frivolous lawsuits are filed by individuals who represent themselves—and who are so poor that they are exempt from paying filing fees. Courts are now refusing to allow appeals without payment of those fees if it seems clear the appeal would be brought in bad faith.

Employee said he would do work free? You must still comply with the FLSA

10/12/2011
The Fair Labor Standards Act has been around for many decades, but some em­­ployers still think they can circumvent the inconvenient truth that they must pay employees for their labor. If some of your managers share this mis­­conception, the following case may make them change their minds.

Keep close tabs on your head count: Volunteers may be ’employees’ under Title VII

10/12/2011
Don’t think you have enough employees to be covered by Title VII’s anti-discrimination provisions or other laws? If volunteers help your organization accomplish its work and you don’t count them, think again.