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The Employer Handbook Blog

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Do-over! Employer avoids a discrimination claim by rescinding employee’s termination

Get back to where you once belonged. Picture this… You decide to eliminate an employee’s position, but give her a few weeks’ notice. Prior to her last day of work, you present this employee with a severance agreement, which offered her six weeks of pay in exchange for “a complete waiver…

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Celebrating an employee accused of domestic violence with a song about domestic violence — bad idea.

It is fairly common for Major League Baseball pitchers to have music played when they enter a ballgame. For example, the great Mariano Rivera famously entered games in the ninth inning to Metallica’s Enter Sandman. Aroldis Chapman (pictured above), can hurl a baseball 103 miles per hour with his left hand. He…

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There’s a metaphor for the $7 million that the DOL is paying to settle its own employees’ FLSA claims…

Wait, it’ll come to me…. Please be patient. It’ll come to me…   It’s right there on the tip of my tongue. Maybe some music would help… No, I got nothin’. Bloomberg Law’s Ben Penn reports here (subscription required) that the U.S. Department of Labor has agreed to pay $7 million to…

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Do most employers pay minimum-wage workers more than $7.25/hour? YES! (And it’s not even close)

Since July 24, 2009, the federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees has been $7.25 per hour. Many states and cities have raised that floor, with some cities, like Seattle, headed to $15/hr. But, federally, despite pressure from many to raise it, we’ve been stuck at a $7.25 minimum wage for over 7…

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Is a confidentiality provision in an employee settlement agreement worth the paper it’s printed on?

A reader emailed me yesterday. “Hey Eric, Clients are wondering about value of settlement NDAs after ex-Fox News HWE victims go public despite contracts. Your reaction?” Wait! You mean employees actually violate confidentiality provisions? I know, right? By way of brief background, in late July, New York ran a story by Gabriel…

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Yes, we get it already. Permanent light duty is not an ADA reasonable accommodation.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires an employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee with a disability, when doing so will permit that employee to perform the essential functions of the job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include reassigning non-essential job functions to other employees, a transfer to another open…

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How far can employees go when discussing politics? Not very.

  Over the weekend, my HR buddy Heather Kinzie and I exchanged emails about employees discussing politics on social media. Serendipitously, a recent employee firing over an explosive tweet — yeah, I know, shocking — provides with me with some Monday fodder for you. Nancy Dillon at the the New York Daily…

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Those non-competes your employees sign probably violate federal labor law. Or do they?

Quit playing with my emotions, Eric. That National Labor Relations Board has gone and done it again! Or has it? In Minteq International, Inc., and Specialty Minerals, Inc. (you can download a copy of the decision here), the Board examined the confidentiality language in a company’s non-competition agreements: Confidential Information refers to…