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Did I scare you yesterday with my post about the part-time employee denied leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act who may have an FMLA retaliation claim after receiving full-time hours?

Well, your blogtender is here with a double shot of courage. (See what I did there?)

*** blogtender pours himself a double shot of something else ***

Fact or Fiction?That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.”

Come on, gang! Did you see yesterday’s blog masterpiece? Those .gif’s don’t animate themselves. My little elves — I’m classifying them as FLSA exempt by the way — crank the wheel every time you land on the page. So, cut me some slack; I’m taking it easy today.

But, check this out. We have a part-time employee who claims that her three requests for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for a sick spouse are denied. Then, less than a month later, her boss gives her full-hours.

Welcome everyone to the Employment Law Blog Carnival. What you’ll find after the jump is the best, recent posts from around the employment-law blogosphere all organized around a common theme.

So, yeah, we need a theme.

[Lousy blog rules]

Two years ago, we spun some tunes with the “Employment Law Blog Carnival: Jukebox Edition.” That featured such hits like “If You Love HIPAA, Let Me See You Twerk It” and a Sex Pistols B-side hidden track about social media policies.

Last year, I went with the “Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Casting Call Edition.” To the casual internet user, my writing in that post may have seemed, oh, what’s the word, “deranged”? Here is an actual quote:

Stuart Rudner blogs “When trust has been destroyed: Just cause for dismissal.” The Canadian adaptation, “Haste Makes Waste,” is set for release next year and stars Dustin Diamond as Wayne Gretzky. No, not that Wayne Gretzky. Just some guy who plays a total screw-up and happens to have the same name as the “Great One,” which, in turn, helps him to keep his job.

But, to you, my fans, you recognize it as something more than the product of some bad salmon I ingested just before a marathon two-finger typing session. It’s gold!

So, mainly since my brain is fried from churning out this drivel — free drivel — every weekday, let’s stick with the Hollywood theme. How about the Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Villains Edition? Hannibal Lechter would approve, I’m sure. You may even see him after the jump.

So grab some liver, fava beans and nice chianti and click through to read the carnival offerings…

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Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for EEOC.jpgLast week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a public meeting in Washington, D.C. at which invited panelists spoke on national origin discrimination issues in today’s workplace.

Participants discussed various recruitment and hiring issues; discriminatory treatment in assignments; pay discrimination; language and accent issues; effective communication and access issues; harassment; and retaliation.

The EEOC’s event press release highlighted some comments and issues of which employers should take note. Most notably, one management-side lawyer, Douglas Farmer, testified that the multi-cultural workplace presents challenges for employers. For example, based on their cultural background, some men may find it difficult to have a female supervisor.

Yeah, I know. Shocker, right?

A prison guard for the Arkansas Department of Corrections drove 27 work-release inmates in a van to a parking lot next to a fried chicken joint. Rather than hit the drive thru, the prison guard left the 27 criminals in the van and went inside to place his order.

For what it’s worth, the prison guard testified that there were no other customers ahead of him in line. Further, the prison guard thought that his chicken stop did not violate any employer policy or rule.

It’s been a while since we’ve discussed discipline for employee Facebook behavior. So, let’s go over some basics. Generally speaking:

    1. one employee, griping alone on Facebook about his employer, can be fired; but
  1. two employees, complaining together on Facebook about their employer, cannot be fired.

Earlier this year, the City of Philadelphia got this close to passing a bill requiring local employers to provide paid sick leave to employee.

PA Rep. Seth Grove (York County-R), wants to make sure there are no such close calls in the future.

Late last month, Rep. Grove introduced this bill in the PA House of Representatives, geared towards “providing statewide uniformity regarding vacation and other forms of leave mandated by political subdivisions.”

Thumbnail image for DOLlogo.pngOrdinarily, I’m reluctant to recommend online modules that help HR professionals create workplace policies.

Like the one I used to create a Borat Workplace Dress Code. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but I was certain that the one-piece, over-the-shoulder, male swimsuits wouldn’t create a donning and doffing FLSA issue.

Hey, this post got weird quick. Didn’t it?

“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”
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