The Employer Handbook Blog

Congress blocks proposed ban on requests for employee social media passwords

April 24, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA. CISPA provides for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cybersecurity entities, and for other purposes.

However, the majority vote was not without a speed bump, according to this report from Josh Wolford at WebProNews:

Colorado Democrat Ed Perlmutter attempted to tack on a provision to CISPA that would make it illegal for employers to require prospective employees to hand over their social media passwords as a condition of acquiring or keeping a job.

Perlmutter’s amendment was voted down 224-189.

GUEST POST: How Tech Creates Add’l Challenges in Today’s Workplace

April 23, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Noah Kovacs. Noah has over ten years experience in the legal field. He has since retired early and enjoys blogging about small-business law, legal marketing, and everything in between. He recently purchased his first cabin and spends his free time remodeling its kitchen for his family. Twitter: @NoahKovacs

(Want to guest blog at The Employer Handbook? Email me).

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SURVEY: Should you friend your boss on Facebook?

April 22, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

When I first began drafting social media policies and offering social media training for clients, I preached that friending the boss was a bad idea. The lawyer in me was concerned for two reasons: (1) Facebook’s informality would facilitate behavior from a supervisor that a company would not otherwise tolerate in the workplace; (2) if a supervisor knew about, but failed to report, employee actions on Facebook that would violate an anti-harassment policy, the company could lose a valuable discrimination defense.

What do non-lawyers have to say about friending the boss on Facebook? Find out after the jump…

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Breaking Bad? NM is the 6th state to pass social media workplace law

April 19, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

No way, Heisenberg is gonna be cool with this. Not a chance.

Earlier this month, New Mexico joined Maryland, Illinois, California, Michigan, and Utah, by becoming the sixth state to pass a law, which makes it unlawful for an employer to request or require that a prospective employee fork over a social media password as a condition of gaining employment. However, this New Mexico’s law is unique in that it only covers prospective employees, and not the existing workforce.

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I am not in favor of employers asking candidates or current employees for social media passwords. Instead, as I’ve noted before, there is no empirical evidence that employers asking for social media passwords is a common practice. Therefore, these laws seek to regulate a “problem” that rarely, if ever, exists.

RIP: Philadelphia Paid Sick Leave Bill

April 18, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

** picks up phone dorks out in his bluetooth VOIP-compatible headset **

The Employer Handbook: “Nyello.”

Two Weeks Ago: “Hi Handbook. This is “Two Weeks Ago” calling. I wanted to let you know that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter vetoed the “Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces” Bill, also known as the paid sick leave legislation. I read about that legislation on your blog back in February, and I was wondering when you were going to get around to updating your readers.”

Employee caught in a pick, Supreme Court scratches her FLSA claims

April 17, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

** drops microphone, walks off stage **

Fine, I’ll play a quick encore.

Information on how you can help Boston #PrayForBoston

April 16, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

In the aftermath of yesterday’s tragic events, President Obama remarked,

“Boston is a tough and resilient town. So are its people.”

If you want to help them, here and here are some ways to do it.

Four ways to successfully defend an Equal Pay Act claim

April 15, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

This blog is nearly 2 1/2 years old and we have our first Equal Pay Act post. The Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for equal work on jobs the performance of which require equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions. Any wage discrimination on the basis of sex violates the Act.

The EEOC celebrated “Equal Pay Day” last week. So, now is as good a time as any to address the Act through this recent case from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

In Puchakjian v. Township of Winslow, Deborah Puchakjian filled a Municipal Clerk vacancy within the Township of Winslow which came about a result of the retirement of the male incumbent. His salary at retirement was $85,515; Ms. Puchakijan’s salary to replace him was $55,000.

Remove my stitches! And 14 other all-time crazy requests from the boss

April 12, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Yesterday, CareerBuilder.com released its list of 15 of the most unusual things that bosses have asked employees to do. I’ve had a lot of rough, odd jobs in my lifetime —

*** Hey silver spoon! Quit giving me the stink eye over there. If I write it, my readers believe it. Sheep… ***

I consider myself lucky, requests made of me only made the list twice.

Fired and told “you’re a little too old for your job,” Old Rose LOSES her age-bias claim

April 11, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

From the blog that brought you the classy September 2011 post, “This old mother****** may just have an age discrimination claim,” comes a story of a woman whom her former employer **cough** affectionately **cough** referred to as “Old Rose.”

On other occasions, the plaintiff Rosemary Marsh was told, “you’re slipping, you’re getting old.” Another time, she was asked if she was “too old to get down there” when she bent down to replace paper in the photocopier. And when the company eventually fired Ms. Marsh — you had to figure that was coming, right? — she was allegedly told, “I think you’re just getting a little too old for your job.”

Sounds like the makings of a good age discrimination claim. Well, not in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. No ma’am: