I can actually feel the daggers that some of you are staring into me.
So, please allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is H-O explain.
How to demonstrate sexual harassment
So, by now, you’ve likely read the news, first reported on Wednesday night by The New York Times reporters Michael Shear and Steven Greenhouse that “Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay”.
Messrs. Shear and Greenhouse indicated that, yesterday, President Barack Obama was to the direct the U.S. Department of Labor to “revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as ‘executive or professional’ employees to avoid paying them overtime.”
Possible targeted changes to the FLSA
Yesterday, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a public meeting at which it discussed, well, you read the lede. Don’t miss this one employers; the full 411 is after the jump…
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.”
One of your FMLA-eligible employees walks into HR one day and says that she has a serious health condition and would like to take time off to treat her injury. However, the employee, who has paid time off banked away, says that she’d like to dip into her bank of PTO and exhaust that without using any of her 12 weeks of FMLA.
Can your employee affirmatively decline to use FMLA leave, even if the underlying reason for seeking the leave would have invoked FMLA protection?
Last week, Justin Bieber was deposed in an action stemming from an alleged attack by his bodyguard on a member of the paparazzi. Here and pasted below is the video that’s been making the rounds on the internet:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=emsLrZg160s
So, how does this impact your workplace? Don’t let your employee witnesses ever channel their inner Bieber if deposed in a workplace lawsuit.
Late last year, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission scored a big victory when a federal judge found apparel company Abercrombie & Fitch liable for religious discrimination when it fired a Muslim employee for wearing her hijab (a religious headscarf) in the workplace, rather than accommodating her religious beliefs.
On the heels of this win, the EEOC has just issued new guidance about how federal employment discrimination law applies to religious dress and grooming practices, and what steps employers can take to meet their legal responsibilities in this area.
You can view the press release here, a fact sheet here, and a FAQ here.
Back in 2011, when y’all were Tebowing, planking and winning, I was blogging about this case where an employer allegedly updated its employee’s Facebook page and tweeted from her Twitter account without her permission while she was on leave from work following a car accident.
The Stored Communications Act prohibits intentional, unauthorized access to electronically stored communications. The employer admitted that it had accessed the employee’s social media accounts. However, it claimed that it had permission because the employee left her passwords stored on a company server. So, the employer moved for summary judgment.
Opposing the motion, the employee argued that, while the company did possess the account passwords, she had told them to leave their digital fingers off of her social media accounts. This would have made the access unauthorized.
[Cue music]
— Not a single one of you
Yesterday, I read this post from Sara Hutchins Jodka at Employer Law Report about how to pay employees for Daylight Savings Time work and comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Then I ate a big bowl of pulled pork and I thought to myself, “Damn, I’m feeling lazy tonight! With the bazillion posts that I’ve published — and for which none of my freeloading readers have ever offered to pay — there must be a Daylight Savings FLSA post I can recycle.”
…and
In a few weeks, the National Football League owners are going to consider a proposed rule governing the use of the “N”-word during a football game. If the rule goes into effect, any team with a player who uses the “N”-word during a game, will be assessed a 15-yard penalty.
Players, young and old, disagree on the rule.
Here are Michael Wilbon and Jason Whitlock from ESPN’s Outside the Lines debating the merits of the proposed new rule.
The Employer Handbook Blog