The Employer Handbook Blog

Your employee has migraines and can’t work. But is she disabled?

December 23, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

2910430696_fa78d71d8f_m The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits covered employers from discriminating against job applicants and employees on the basis of a disability. What is a disability, you ask? A disability is “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”

If your employee suffers from severe migraines that prohibit the employee from working, does the employee have a disability? Good question. It just depends on what “working” means. Click through and I have a good answer from a recent federal court decision…

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How will your employees be using social media in 2012?

December 22, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

Question

Better yet, what can your business do to capitalize? I’ve got answers to these questions after the jump.

Fail! NYU prof fired for giving actor James Franco a “D”?

December 21, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

I need to come clean with y’all. TMZ.com is one of my guilty pleasures. Don’t hate!

And you should have seen the beaming smile on my face on Monday when when I got some blogging gold as TMZ ran a story about a former college professor at NYU who claims that the school discriminated against him by firing him for, among other things, giving actor James Franco a “D”.

The monkey’s out of the bottle now! More after the jump…

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One blueprint for requiring employees to arbitrate FMLA claims

December 20, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

A NJ court recently held that a business can force an employee to arbitrate FMLA claims — even if the arbitration agreement that the employee signs does not contain a specific FMLA waiver.

How does this all work?

Well, according to the NJ Superior Court in Flores-Galan v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., N.A., “an agreement to arbitrate statutory anti-discrimination claims must be specific enough to put the employee on notice of the claims encompassed.” However, “an arbitration clause need not specify every conceivable statute that it covers.”

Nothing good comes of forcing employees to go to brothels

December 19, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

And, then, there are those that allegedly do. It is on those occasions that this blog can practically write itself.

Take, for example, AutoNation. According to a complaint recently filed in California state court — well, let’s just say that AutoNation better have some good lawyers.

A copy of the complaint and some crazazy unlawful harassment — allegedly, of course — follows after the jump. Along with a few employer tips on same-sex harassment.

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Guest Post: Facebook’s Privacy Problem

December 16, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

I’m taking the day off. I think I deserve it.

So, after the jump, we have a guest post from Angelita Williams. Angelita writes on the topics of online courses. She welcomes your comments at angelita.williams7@gmail.com.

(BTW – If any of you lovely readers are interested in guest posting here at the ol’ Handbook, email me).

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When your employee works OT on the QT, must you pay it?

December 15, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

That was the question that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals faced in an opinion released yesterday. I’ll provide the answer and some analysis after the jump…

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Fact or Fiction: Courts recognize retaliation against ex-employees

December 14, 2011 | 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:

Let’s say I have a former employee who files a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. If a potential new employer comes calling from a job reference and I…

give my former employee a bad reference;

Twitter costs four their jobs and saves another from death row

December 13, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

Is there anything that Twitter can’t do?

*** Twitter, make me a sandwich! ***

Anyway, after the jump, news of three congressional aides who could use a job, a mixed-martial artist whose bosses don’t appreciate tweets about “rape vans,” and a convicted murderer on death row who is going to get a new trial because of a juror’s tweets…

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Can an employer discriminate against an obese employee?

December 12, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

There is no federal law that specifically prohibits obesity discrimination. But is the Americans with Disabilities Act broad enough to cover discrimination against the obese? Well, if you read my blog regularly — Hi Dad! — you know that a hyper-obese Homer Simpson is not disabled, but this 680-pound Texas may be. So, we need a tiebreaker! And, it just so happens that I have one, after the jump…

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