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The Employer Handbook Blog
I’ve got free educational resources for new mothers in the workplace (and their employers)
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a series of August events highlighting the importance of maternal health and workplace protections for expectant and new mothers to mark National Breastfeeding Month. Continue reading
Hostile work environment claims are often like trees falling in the forest
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Continue reading
This HR service provider “walked the walk” and defeated claims of age discrimination
Some of the tenets of good HR compliance include documenting and communicating performance issues and taking additional formal steps to alleviate them. If those steps fail, the employer can proceed with termination, being sure to document the reasons supporting the final decision. Continue reading
Did disability bias motivate HR to fire an employee for sleepwalking into a colleague’s hotel bed?
Imagine getting the call sometime past midnight at an out-of-town national sales conference that you need to immediately investigate a complaint from an employee who says that his female co-worker has sleepwalked into a bed in his hotel room.
That wasn’t on the SHRM-CP exam. Then again, no one forced you to become a Human Resources professional.
At least you’ll have another good story for the next cocktail hour.
CORRECTION: A healthcare employer agreed to pay over $10M to settle claims about a COVID shot mandate
On Friday, attorneys for over 500 current and former healthcare workers at a Midwest healthcare system announced that they had settled “the nation’s first classwide lawsuit” for employees alleging that they were unlawfully discriminated against and denied religious exemptions from a COVID shot mandate. Continue reading
How to fire an employee right after his FMLA expires . . . and win the retaliation lawsuit.
Hey, don’t judge me. You’re just as heartless reading this as I am writing it.
After the feds caught this employer red-handed not paying OT, the employer did the UNTHINKABLE!
Folks, someday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) may darken your door to audit your books and records. Perhaps, they’ll find a violation and require you to pay back wages and liquidated damages. If your next steps involve retaliating against employees who cooperate with investigators and demanding kickbacks of back wages, you will compound those problems.
I told you so.
How would terms limits on the Supreme Court justices impact employment law?
Earlier this week, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released the results of a poll, which found that 67% of Americans support term limits for Supreme Court justices, including a majority of Democrats and Republicans. Continue reading
The anatomy of an FMLA interference claim
An employer fires an employee after the company has approved him for intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The employee begins taking leave in separate blocks of time for a single qualifying reason. Then, the employer fires the employee. So the employee claims FMLA interference.
What exactly is FMLA interference? How does an employee prove it? And what are some defenses? Continue reading