Before terminating or taking any other adverse action against an employee, employers must consider not only whether the employee is in a protected category, but also whether the employee’s friends or family are, too. Lawsuits alleging discrimination or retaliation by association appear…
Pop quiz. Do you think it’s safe to discipline or terminate an employee for being absent or tardy too often? For driving a truck even though he knew he was likely to have an epileptic seizure soon? For throwing her…
Some requests for Family and Medical Leave Act leave just sound suspicious. For example, consider the case of an employee who requested leave during the exact same time of year he had taken off four years earlier. His supervisor ordered surveillance, and terminated…
Email has made it easier than ever for plaintiffs’ attorneys to discover wrongdoing and prove liability, an expert said today at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in Las Vegas. “The ‘e’ in email is for ‘eternal evidence,’” said Mindy H. Chapman, Esq.,…
How’s this for an illustration of how quickly developments can pop up that may require you to revise your employee handbook? Speaking at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference today, Christine V. Walters discussed a new ruling only five…
If attendance at a conference session is any indication, HR professionals remain concerned about how to navigate the intersection of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Now that the Americans With Disabilities Amendments Act…
What a difference a couple of years makes. Not so long ago, a flurry of states passed legislation or ballot initiatives to increase their minimum wage rates. As recently as 2009, there were minimum wage increases in 24 states. Since…
Let’s say you have some employees who work long, 12-hour shifts and others who work traditional eight-hour shifts. The 12-hour employees work four shifts one week (48 hours), then three shifts the second week (36 hours) and another three shifts…