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We’ve got a date, you and me, for a lunchtime wage and hour webcast
I’ll even treat. Ok, it’s free.
Seriously, if you don’t yet have plans today for lunch (or, for you in the West, breakfast, or whatever it is you do out there at 9 am), register here for a free SHRM webcast entitled “FLSA: Stay Safe Now and in the Future.”
It’ll be Wage and Hour 101, a great offering for HR generalists and others who need to learn (or brush up on) the FLSA basics, and don’t mind being lectured by a blogging employment lawyer in his mismatched socks and pajamas. In this webcast, you’ll learn best practices for employee classification, wage and hour compliance, and recordkeeping. You’ll also get advice for conducting self-audits of your company’s practices and what to expect from the Department of Labor when regulations are issued.
Those without Facebook accounts need not apply. Well, maybe not in one state.
Forcing job applicants to disclose social media logins and passwords as a condition of employment is so 2013 — kinda like this crappy blog. So, the State of Oregon is this close to becoming the first state to expand its social media workplace privacy law to forbid employers from requiring their employees or job applicants to have personal social media accounts as a condition of employment.
You can read a copy of the bill here.
So far, the bill has made it through both the House and Senate without a single “nay.” And, Mark Zuckerberg plans to buy Oregon, rename it “Gotcha, Zucka!” and secede from the Union the Governor plans to sign the bill. The new law would only impact social media accounts used exclusively for personal purposes unrelated to any business purpose of the employer or prospective employer and that is not provided by or paid for by the employer or prospective employer.
I understand the good intentions of the bill. Work is work; personal is personal and worlds don’t have to collide. But, consider two points: Continue reading
100,000 reasons to take all forms of discrimination seriously
And, that includes discrimination against bronies men.
Because remember my January post about the EEOC suing Ruby Tuesday, alleging that the restaurant chain discriminated against male employees for temporary assignments? Welp, that case just settled for $100K!
But, wait! There’s more… Continue reading
Just how nervous should companies be about FLSA lawsuits over employee smartphone use? (Hint: very)
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
(I’m pretty sure that was from Ferris Bueller)
Yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal, I read Lauren Weber’s article “Can You Sue the Boss for Making You Answer Late-Night Email?” And the answer is yes, provided that you are a non-exempt employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the time you spend answering that email is more than a few minutes a week. It’s no different than when an employee checks company email at work. Work is work. Employees get paid to work. Continue reading
The May ’15 edition of The Employment Law Blog Carnival is LIVE #ELBC
Yesterday was interesting.
- I discovered what it’s like to use a coffee shop (with free wifi) as a law office. I even converted the empty table next to me into my conference room. I made silent vow to myself never to do that again.
- I learned what “eponymous” means. It was not what I thought.
Survey shows many hiring managers are not bashful about trolling applicants online.
It’s funny.
(Not “ha ha!” funny. Just, employment-law blogger, wry-smile funny).
I read different surveys about social media and hiring and the numbers vary greatly. For every survey that indicates that employers are not using social media to vet candidates, you get the one I read last night from CareerBuilder.com, which reports that “fifty-two percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up significantly from 43 percent last year and 39 percent in 2013.” Continue reading
58,000 reasons to consider telework as an ADA reasonable accommodation
Telework is among the array of possible reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act that may enable an employee with a disability to perform the essential functions of the job.
Now, as a federal appellate court confirmed last month, there are situations in which telework is not a reasonable accommodation; namely, where attendance and face time are essential functions of the job. But, other times, telecommuting may be just what the doctor ordered. Continue reading
One employee’s hard lesson about social media and customer relations
Raise your hand if you don’t own a smartphone.
According to this Pew survey, 64% of American adults own smartphones. And that’s just the adults.
So, it should come as no surprise that, in the brief amount of time it takes someone to pull a phone of a pocket, bring it to life, pull up a camera app, and hit record — five seconds maybe — anything you (or your employees) do in public can be stored and shared. Continue reading
Short of saying F-M-L-A, what must an employee do to get FMLA leave?
Y’all enjoy yesterday’s Thursday Giveaway. (Y’all, huh. Look at me. You can take the boy out of Texas, but…). Anyway, if you missed out on getting a copy of that background check PowerPoint and webinar, just send me 1.21 gigawatts, Libyan-grade plutonium, and a selfie stick email me and I’ll still hook you up.
Now, let’s talk about notice under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Specifically, in those situations in which an employee doesn’t use the letters F-M-L-A, what can that employee say or do to still qualify for leave? Continue reading