December, 2011

Your favorite “The Employer Handbook” posts from 2011

December 30, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

As the year draws to a close, let’s take a look back at the most popular posts at The Employer Handbook in 2011, based on number of hits:

5. Social media and the workplace. School teacher Natalie Munroe made several appearances on the blog this year. Remember her? She was the blogging school teacher who wrote that her students were “utterly loathsome in all imaginable ways.” Although, Ms. Munroe eventually returned to work, her experience is a sound reminder to always think twice before hitting “send.” You can read the fifth-most-popular post, “Yes, you CAN discipline employees who abuse social media” here.

4. I’m a poet and I don’t even know it. I’m not sure what inspired the fourth-most-popular post. It must have been a slow news day. How else do I come up with the idea to Haiku — verbing a noun, sorry — about recent employment-law decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court?

This is why HR should timely document employee issues

December 29, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

Last week, a federal appellate court (here) allowed a white assistant manager to pursue claims of reverse race discrimination against a bank because the reasons that the bank offered to the court for firing the plaintiff did not jibe with the documentation in its own file. Oh, wait a minute, there was zero documentation in the file.

I smell some trouble for the employer and some good lessons for my business readers, after the jump, of course…

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Age discrimination: It’s not rocket science.

December 28, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

Oh, Meyer, where are you going with this one?

Well, it’s my chance to play a little GnR after the jump while reminding my awesome employer readers about what it takes for an employee to actually prove a claim of age discrimination.

(Hint: It’s not easy)…

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“Sex-plus” discrimination: Illegal? Yes. But what the heck is it?

December 27, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

I have no idea. I was hoping that one of you could help me out.

Oh, wait, I’m supposed to be the expert here. Ok. Fine. I’ll play some music and dish the deets — hint, it has something to do with the picture — after the jump…

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NLRB: Employers can keep that union-rights poster on ice

December 23, 2011 | by Eric B. Meyer

And just in time for Christmas.

The National Labor Relations Board announced today that it has again extended the deadline for covered employers to post this notice, advising employees how to form a union, among other things. The new deadline is April 30, 2012.

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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