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Employment Law

Use plain English in your severance agreements

08/08/2011

Employers can offer severance payments to older workers they plan to terminate in exchange for a release of age discrimination claims. But the severance agreement must comply with the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act in order to stick. To comply with OWBPA, the agreement must be written clearly and simply enough that the employee can understand what he is signing.

Patience–and focus on job performance–are key when dealing with difficult employee

08/08/2011

It’s often quite obvious when an em­­ployee is having personal problems that she needs to resolve. But employers have to treat such an employee carefully to avoid a possible ADA regarded-as-disabled lawsuit. The key is patience and focusing on workplace performance issues rather than any suspected disability.

Health system consultants gain class-action status in FLSA suit

08/08/2011
A New York court has granted class-­action status to a lawsuit filed by ben­efits consultants at a subsidiary of the WellCare health system, who allege they were misclassified as exempt.

Inadvertent segregation? Be able to explain why

08/08/2011
Here’s a caution about workplace logistics such as office assignments, work schedules and other supervisor actions that members of a particular protected class could view as hostile: If the result is any kind of workforce “segregation,” make sure you have a good underlying business reason that has nothing to do with race, sex, etc.

Ban class actions in arbitration agreements

08/08/2011

If your arbitration agreement is more than a year old, chances are it needs updating. That’s especially true if the contract doesn’t specifically ban class-action arbitrations. As a recent 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision shows, leaving out that prohibition could prompt an arbi­trator to treat one employee’s complaint as a class action covering many employees.

Base FMLA eligibility on date leave begins, not date employee requests it

08/08/2011
Some employees—seeing their FMLA eligibility on the horizon—may ask for FMLA leave before they’ve actually hit the one-year and 1,250-hour eligibility milestones. That’s OK. Remember, employers can’t deny an employee’s FMLA re­­quest simply because it was made before the employee became eligible.

New DOL rule: Report agreements with your lawyer

08/05/2011
Business groups aren’t pleased with new U.S. Department of Labor proposed changes to the so-called “persuader” regulations under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. They say the changes will restrict access to legal counsel and make it easier for unions to organize.

3 million reasons not to ‘get revenge’ on complaining worker

08/04/2011

Do your supervisors know it’s illegal to lash out at or get revenge on em­­ployees who voice legal complaints? While race discrimination has historically been the most popular employee discrimination claim with the EEOC, retaliation took over the top spot last year. A recent $3 million jury verdict shows how America is becoming Retaliation Nation.

Can your workplace withstand EEOC scrutiny? Run a self-audit

08/03/2011
The EEOC has an inde­pendent right to investigate discrimination claims and can expand investigations well beyond any initial complaint. For that reason, it’s important to pro­­actively look for inadvertent discrimination in all your hiring and em­­ployment practices. Don’t wait for the EEOC or a state anti-bias agency to come snooping around.

Worker lost $700: Can we make him pay it back?

08/02/2011
When an employee loses company property or money, what recourse do employers have to recoup their loss? It depends on the applicable state wage law … and on whether you believe the “loss” was really accidental.