The Employer Handbook Blog

Pepsi and Criminal Background Checks: Beyond the Buzz

February 3, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Janette Levey Frisch. Janette is In-House Counsel at Joule, Inc. where she provides comprehensive legal representation and support to a staffing company with five subsidiaries throughout the East Coast. You can connect with Janette on Twitter here and on LinkedIn here.

Janette’s post on criminal background checks, which includes some best practices for employers, follows after the jump…

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

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Good luck overcoming the at-will employment presumption in PA

February 2, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

In Pennsylvania, as in most states, an employee without a contract for a specific term of employment is deemed an at-will employee. Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., discrimination, violations of public policy), an at-will employee can be terminated for any reason or no reason at all.

How hard is it to overcome the at-will employment presumption? Pretty darn hard, as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reminded us last week. More on this decision and some tips for employers after the jump…

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Ouch, that hurts! Supervisors may be liable for FMLA violations

February 1, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

In this case of first impression in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers PA, NJ, DE, and USVI, the court ruled that a supervisor in a public agency may be subject to personal liability under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The court further emphasized that there is “no reason to distinguish between public agencies and private employers under the FMLA insofar as individual liability is concerned.”

Holy Schnikes!

Details after the jump…

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Atten-shun! Expanded military leave FMLA rules are coming…

January 31, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

The United States Department of Labor announced here yesterday that it is issuing proposed rules that would expand military family leave provisions under the Family and Medical Leave Act and incorporate a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees.

Details and links after the jump…

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Your Gen Y employees love mixing business with pleasure online

January 30, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

At least that’s what this survey from Millenial Branding says. (It’s also on this infographic if you’re lazy). According to the survey, which consisted of 4 million Gen-Y (ages 18-29) Facebook profiles from Identified.com’s database of 50 million, nearly two-thirds of Gen-Y fail to list their employer on their profiles. However, they average 16 co-worker friends.

More on this, along with some tips for employers, after the jump…

Aloha NFL social-media policy…for one day. #ProBowl

January 27, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

The Associated Press reports here that the National Football League will suspend its social media policy for one day — Sunday — to allow players who are participating in the Pro Bowl to tweet during the game.

Under the current NFL policy, players, coaches and football operations personnel can use Twitter, Facebook and other social media up to 90 minutes before kickoff, and after the game following traditional media interviews.

During the Pro Bowl, however, the NFL will set up a computer on each sideline where players are encouraged to use Twitter (and the #ProBowl hashtag) to communicate with fans, teammates and even opponents during commercial breaks and when their offensive or defensive unit is not on the field. 49ers Pro Bowl tackle Joe Staley plans to #tweetlikeaboss.

3 ways for HR to avoid unlawful, overbroad social-media policies

January 26, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board announced in this press release that it had issued a second social-media report to help provide further guidance to practitioners and human resource professionals.

What does that report say? And how can you bulletproof your social-media policy?

Find out after the jump…

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You can’t “rummage at will” through employee Facebook accounts

January 25, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Well, at least that’s what a federal court recently told a defendant-employer in this ruling.

In Tompkins v. Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the plaintiff suffered a slip-and-fall and later claimed back and other injuries. She sued her employer, who subsequently demanded that Tompkins provide full access to her Facebook account. Acknowledging that Facebook information that a user shares only with a few Facebook friends may still be discoverable, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, emphasized that there are limits to the Facebook discovery that a party may pursue:

[M]aterial posted on a “private” Facebook page, that is accessible to a selected group of recipients but not available for viewing by the general public, is generally not privileged, nor is it protected by common law or civil law notions of privacy. Nevertheless, the Defendant does not have a generalized right to rummage at will through information that Plaintiff has limited from public view. [T]here must be a threshold showing that the requested information is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

U.S. Department of Labor has new FLSA and FMLA fact sheets

January 24, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor published new fact sheets on its website. Employers and employees alike will want to check these out:

Here is a link to the FLSA fact sheet. This fact sheet provides general information concerning the FLSA’s prohibition of retaliating against any employee who has filed a complaint or cooperated in an investigation.

Fact or Fiction: If you don’t say “FMLA”, you can’t take FMLA leave?

January 23, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

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”. So, let’s get right to today’s question:

That Eddie Employee is a gamer.

While filling up at the Gas-N-Gulp on his way to work, out of nowhere, a punk teen whacked Eddie across the face with a skateboard. Youch! Jaw broken, Eddie got back into his car, drove to work, and somehow managed to stumble into HR. Spitting out blood and teeth, Eddie asked Agatha Administrator for a week off from work to go to the hospital to have surgery to fix his ugly mug and recuperate. However, as Eddie slurred and lisped out his request, he never specifically mentioned the letters “F-M-L-A”.