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Employment Law

Beware denying ‘vacation’ request in disguise

07/13/2011

If there’s no use-it-or-lose-it policy in place, employees can easily stockpile weeks of vacation or personal leave. Should they become ill, they may try to use that time as a substitute for FMLA leave. If an employee asks you to approve an especially long vacation, and you suspect the underlying reason may be a covered condition under the FMLA, beware automatically rejecting the request.

Do oral complaints carry the same weight as written complaints in retaliation cases?

07/13/2011
Q. We have an employee who has made several complaints about his wages while talking to his manager during informal meetings. Are these oral complaints sufficient to trigger the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) anti-retaliation provision?

What’s this new technology designed to help employees track their hours worked?

07/13/2011
Q. I heard something about a new wage-and-hour smartphone app that the Department of Labor has announced. What does it mean for our company?

Check your web policies: NLRB looks at employee Facebook posts

07/13/2011
Facebook and other social net­working web sites are signifi­cantly changing the way people com­mu­ni­cate—and that communication isn’t always merely personal. Em­ployees sometimes post comments criticizing their jobs and employers. Tempting though it may be, think twice before punishing employees for online behavior that you think maligns your organization.

Chicago firefighter bias case: $30 million settlement on table

07/13/2011
The controversy over a 1995 Chicago firefighter hiring test may finally be headed toward closure now that a federal appeals court has ruled the city must hire 111 black applicants who passed the test. In addition to hiring the firefighters, the city has offered to pay approximately 6,000 applicants who passed the test a portion of an estimated $30 million.

Transgender restroom flap escalates to lawsuit

07/13/2011
When Meggan Summerville had to go to the restroom one day on her job at a Hobby Lobby store in Aurora, she used the ladies’ room—and was reprimanded for it. The problem, as far as her boss was concerned, is that Summerville was born Mark Summer­ville and is transitioning from male to female.

ADA: Now AutoZone has the pain in the neck

07/13/2011
A federal jury has returned a $600,000 verdict against AutoZone, ruling that the auto parts chain’s Macomb store violated the ADA when it refused to accommodate a sales manager’s request to be exempted from mopping floors due to a neck injury.

7th Circuit clamps down on deadbeat serial litigant

07/13/2011
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has barred a woman from filing any new civil lawsuits or renewing old ones anywhere in the circuit until she pays fines various courts have already levied.

Employee isn’t completely reliable? OK to consider that when making promotion decisions

07/13/2011

Sometimes, it becomes clear early on that you can’t count on a new employee. He begins missing work or simply isn’t available when you call him in for extra hours. Most supervisors who find themselves in that situation will just call a more reliable employee instead. That’s perfectly fine in most cases.

Factor in employee discretion when tech changes start to affect FLSA classifications

07/13/2011
As the world of work becomes more technologically driven, some employees are seeing their job responsibilities change. Those jobs may then change from hourly to exempt under the FLSA.