When I think of Pennsylvania, it’s the Liberty Bell, cheesesteaks, and that putrid football team from Pittsburgh with the fans that wave yellow towels. I also think of employer-friendly employment laws. But one of those associations may soon be eroding. (Spoiler alert: not my opinion of the hapless Steelers). Last…
Think of all the personal, sensitive information that an individual shares with you just to have the opportunity to earn a living as an employee of your company. As part of onboarding, new employees provide their home address, social security number, bank and financial account numbers for direct deposit, insurance…
The local and national news outlets were buzzing yesterday about a family toting around a five-foot reptile in Philadelphia’s Love Park last week. Meet Wally, the Emotional Support Alligator. Imagine encountering this beast on your afternoon stroll out with the family. This report from the Philly Voice included reactions from some…
Image Credit: Photofunia.com After a ten-day vacation trip with my family (IYKYK) onboard the S.S. Blog Cruiser Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, I’m back to the reality of practicing employment law and blogging about it. Today, let’s play some tunes as we gaze into the crystal ball and predict…
Has anyone ever sued your business for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act? This federal law requires covered employers to pay minimum wage and overtime at time-and-a-half when employees work more than 40 hours in a workweek. They can be expensive to defend — even the ones that aren’t collective…
I’ve litigated many battles between companies over trade secrets and non-competition and non-solicitation agreements. The tie that binds them all is that these cases are expensive to prosecute and defend. When these cases advance to court, most are about one thing: getting an injunction to stop a former employee from…
Last night, I read this federal court opinion where a defendant, sued after firing a plaintiff who used CBD for her disability, got the entire case dismissed. So, let’s talk about how and why. According to the plaintiff’s complaint, she had a disability for which she used an over-the-counter CBD…
“Oh, word?” — none of you, hopefully. The Family and Medical Leave Act states that an eligible employee “shall be entitled to a total of twelve workweeks of leave during any twelve-month period” for several qualifying reasons. When I look up the word “shall” in the dictionary, it says, “used…
Some of you require your employees to sign agreements requiring them to arbitrate employment claims — other than claims of sexual harassment or abuse, of course. But what happens if your employees later sign another agreement — a severance agreement, for example — that doesn’t contain an arbitration provision? One…
CommunistSquared, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Greetings from Seattle. Before I begin my day of **checks notes** culture and refinement, I figured I’d blog first about this recent opinion from a federal court in Pennsylvania. It involves an individual — let’s just call him “Plaintiff” — who claimed that his former…