The Employer Handbook Blog

Noting “Health Reasons” on a termination form could indicate disability bias

April 6, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

Happy Monday, everyone.

Glad to see I didn’t break some of your content filters on Friday with my filthy NLRB post. But, hey, just another day in the interesting life of an employment lawyer / HR professional, amirite?

Today, I bring you a very simple lesson, courtesy of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, from right here in my backyard. That lesson is this:

When you terminate an employee, do not write “Health Reasons” on the employee’s termination form. Continue reading

NLRB ok’s one of the filthiest employee Facebook posts about a manager … evah!

April 3, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

[WARNING: This post has some VERY foul language. Although the National Labor Relations Board may tolerate it, many of you may be offended].

By now, all of us have read the articles, which claim that the law permits your employees to complain about work on social media … and keep their jobs.

Well, that’s not exactly true. The National Labor Relations Act, which applies to most private-sector workplaces — both union and non-union — protects employees who engage in protected concerted activity. Protected concerted activity is where employees discuss working conditions with one another.

But, an employee who gripes alone is not protected. Also, vulgar and obscene comments are not protected.

Until now. Continue reading

Your ex-employee won’t tell you the password to your company’s LinkedIn page. Now what?

April 2, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

Your company has set up a private LinkedIn Group. Your company, which controls who may become a member of the Group, has seen the number of Group members swell to nearly 700. Way to go! Because it’s a private group, the names of all of the group members are not generally available to the public.

Now, let’s say that the employee whom you have appointed to manage the LinkedIn Group — the one who knows all the passwords — up and leaves. And, of course, he doesn’t return the passwords. What can you do?

How about a lawsuit for misappropriation of trade secrets? Continue reading

R.I.P. Baby Shane Metzgar

April 1, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

One of the great things about having my own blog is the ability to share and engage with my readers in a number of relatable ways. Mostly, it’s through a casual — some may say snarky — discussion of trending legal issues affecting the workplace.

But, every once in while, I like that we can take a different path together and share personal stories. Whether fueled with joy or sorrow, these “off-topic” posts are what make this forum special.

Today, I want to share with you an update on a special little boy: Shane Metzgar.

Pilot who ranted and raved mid-flight about a terrorist attack blames airline for allowing him to fly

March 31, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

One week ago today, a Germanwings plane carrying 150 people crashed and killed everyone on board. Since then, there is mounting evidence that the co-pilot, who was in great physical shape, was also suffering from mental illness which caused him to deliberately steer Flight 9525 into the French Alps.

Why didn’t Germanwings taken preventative steps? Apparently, the co-pilot hid his mental illness from his employer.

Three days after the Germanwings catastrophe, a former JetBlue airline pilot, who was locked out of the cockpit and had to be subdued by passengers, filed this lawsuit in federal court against his former employer. He claims that the airline was negligent because it knew or should have known that he was “physically and mentally unfit to fly.” Continue reading

Was the Ellen Pao gender bias trial a wakeup call or snooze for businesses?

March 30, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

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I intended to begin the week with a post about a company’s legal obligation to predict — yes, predict — an employee’s mental fitness for duty. Then, I started on a brief tangent on Ellen Pao, the former partner of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, who just lost a highly-publicized gender discrimination claim against said former employer.

And a few hundred words later, that brief tangent became its own blog post — this one. (If you want a wild lawsuit brought by an airline captain who claimed that his former employer was negligent by failing to predict that he’d have a manic in-flight episode, come back tomorrow). Continue reading

The Employer Handbook takes on the world’s strangest job interview questions of 2015

March 27, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

The folks over at Glassdoor.com have compiled their Top Oddball Interview Questions for 2015. Except this year, there’s a twist. Glassdoor has grouped the questions by country: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany.

So, let’s put these question to the test. I’m going to take a random “oddball” question from each country, list my response, and predict whether I would have gotten the job: Continue reading

The Supreme Court kinda sorta clarifies pregnancy accommodation rules at work

March 26, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

But, I’ll do my best to sort it out for you.

Let’s assume that you have a pregnant employee who tells you that she has a lifting restriction. In the past, you have accommodated employees with disabilities who had similar lifting restrictions. You’ve also done the same for folks who got injured on the job and others who lost their Department of Transportation (DOT) certifications.

If you don’t provide the same accommodation to the pregnant employee, have you violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?

English-only rules may be discriminatory….and violate federal labor law too.

March 25, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

A few years ago, I posed the question: Is a workplace “English-only” rule legal?

Yadda, yadda, yadda, sometimes.

That is, in this Compliance Manual, the EEOC confirms that employers may adopt English-only rules under certain circumstances, insofar as it is adopted for nondiscriminatory reasons (e.g., safety, business necessity) and not to discriminate on the basis of national origin. Continue reading

Does a company invade an employee’s privacy by accessing personal texts on a work-issued iPad?

March 24, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

This “invasion of privacy” question is the lynchpin of a new lawsuit from two former employees of one of the largest beer companies in the world. The complaint (available here), which began in state court, has been removed to federal court in New Jersey.

David Gialanella, reporting for the New Jersey Law Journal (full article here), summarizes the facts of the case:

A year ago, five company employees, including Nascimento and Yule, exchanged a series of text messages, apparently disparaging fellow employee Alex Davis. The messages were transmitted using their personal mobile phones, and on their own time, but Nascimento’s personal phone was linked to his company iPad through the iMessaging application, causing the messages to be stored on the iPad, according to the complaint.

Afterward, Nascimento was issued a new iPad, while the old one—with his text messages and credit card information still stored on it—was loaned to Davis. Davis discovered the text messages and complained, after which Nascimento, Yule and the others were questioned by investigators hired by Anheuser-Busch, according to the complaint.

Nascimento, Yule and a third employee involved in the messaging were terminated last September for “‘violation of corporate policy regarding use of company equipment,’” while a fourth was reprimanded, according to the complaint.