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The Employer Handbook Blog
NJ passes a business-friendly workplace social media privacy law
It takes two to make a thing go right.
It takes two to make it out of sight, palatable enough for bipartisan support.
It took some doing, but the State of New Jersey finally has itself a workplace social media privacy law, becoming the 12th state to restrict company access to prospective and current employee social media.
What employers should know about the ADA and fitness-for-duty exams
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Imagine, if you will, that two years ago you hired Amanda Bynes to be your Social Media Manager. Things are going pretty smoothly, until your customers begin complaining that company’s Twitter feed has gone from informative and witty to curious and more-or-less bizarre.
After reviewing the tweets for yourself, you wonder whether you picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue Ms. Bynes is fit to perform the job of Social Media Manager. One tool in your arsenal is a fitness-for-duty evaluation with a medical provider.
But if you send Ms. Bynes for this test, she fails, and you end up firing her, does that mean that you have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act?
Enforce your employee call-in/notice requirements — even for FMLA leave
In that handbook of yours should be a page — maybe a few lines — on an employee’s responsibility to notify you if they are going to miss work. Who to call, when to call, that kind of stuff.
A recent case from the Sixth Circuit (this one) reaffirms that employees need not relax these rules — even when the employee is seeking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
In White v. Dana Light Axle Manuf., the employer had a simple rule: when you’re going to be out, call it in. The plaintiff, who needed FMLA leave for a hernia surgery, assumed that because he had previously met with the employer in person to discuss his upcoming hernia surgery, he didn’t need to later call in his absences.
FACT OR FICTION: Permanent light duty is an ADA reasonable accommodation
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.”
Today, I’m speaking at the EEOC EXCEL Conference in Denver, CO. It’s an incredible honor, given that this is the first year that the conference has not only catered to public sector employers, but also those in the private sector.
(Well, at least, that’s what someone at yesterday’s networking reception, so I’m going with it).
That’s what they said: Solving your Labor Day employee-pay issues
Monday is Labor Day, the day I plan to break the Guinness World Record for twerking and eating BLTs — they call it BLTwerking a tribute to the American Worker.
If you give your employees the day off on Labor Day, a national holiday, do you have to pay them?
My buds Jon Hyman and Mike Haberman have your answers here and here.
Paula Deen discrimination lawsuit dismissed after parties settle
On Friday, a federal court in Georgia dismissed all of the remaining discrimination counts against Paula Deen and her brother, Bubba, after the parties reported to the court that the two sides had settled.
The settlement terms are undisclosed.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Ms. Deen’s publicist wrote:
DOL offers the definitive word on FMLA and same-sex marriage. Kinda sorta.
Do you have 50 or more employees working with 75 miles of one another?
If not, see ya Monday.
But if you do, check out the United States Department of Labor’s revised “Fact Sheet #28F: Qualifying Reasons for Leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.”
Four easy ways to break the law by viewing an employee’s Facebook posts
There are 11 states with social media workplace privacy laws making it illegal for an employer to require that an employee or applicant fork over a social media login and password.
But, if a company in the other 39 states assumes that it has the green light to engage in these shenanigans, then chiggity check yo self before you wreck yo self, according to this recent NJ federal court decision.
The legal risks of accessing an employee’s Facebook account
Employment Law Blog Carnival: The Back-to-School Edition
Welcome everyone to the latest edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival. What Target and Wal-Mart are to back-to-school shopping, this is your one-stop-shop for the hottest trends in employment law.
Your original carnival hosts for this month, my good pal Ari Rosenstein and the great folks at CPEhr.com asked me to step in. So, consider me the hot substitute teacher. [Hey! Eyes up here!] Glad to help out my friends.
Credit to Ari and the team for all of the hard work in putting this month’s edition of the Employment Law Blog Carnival together. I’ll take credit for all of the grammar errors, typos, and the inappropriate carnival soundtrack (you’ll see…).
Click through and enjoy!
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