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A couple of weeks ago, President Barack Obama held a gathering at the White House that has become known as the “beer summit.” In attendance at this meeting with the President were prominent Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and police sergeant James Crowley, who is white, along with Vice President Joe Biden. […]
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for employers. Within the FLSA, there are record-keeping requirements, including a list of 15 types of information employers must keep for up to three years. Compliance is not only required by law, but it can also be very helpful in the […]
by Susan Fahey Desmond In addressing the ever increasing costs of health care in the United States, Congress is looking at options that would theoretically make health insurance more affordable to Americans. The task of making health insurance more affordable to all is monumental. President Obama has said, “There’s no quick fix; there’s no silver […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Your plate is probably overly full with downsizing, trying to make ends meet, and trying to keep your budget projections at least somewhat in line with reality. The last thing you need to be dealing with is a lawsuit brought by a disgruntled employee or former employee. But […]
Tonight we revisited the episode “Heavy Competition,” which is rife with the kind of employee misconduct that keeps us lawyers busy. Last time we looked at this episode, we talked about trade-secret violations as well as Dwight Schrute’s personal liability for his bizarre antics, which included placing a dead fish in an air-conditioning vent in […]
The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court today in a 68-31 vote. As expected, the Senators voted along party lines, with all Senate Democrats and only nine Republicans voting to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominee. The final step in Sotomayor’s road to the Supreme Court will be a White House […]
Things are getting really busy, and now employee A wants FMLA leave, B has jury duty, and C needs an accommodation. It can be frustrating, but employees have rights, and it’s foolhardy to challenge them. In yesterdays’ Advisor we began covering 10 essential steps for avoiding employee lawsuits. Here are steps 5 through 10: Step […]
Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) today in the U.S. Senate. ENDA was previously introduced on June 24 in the U.S. House of Representatives. If passed, ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. According […]
Maybe—but it depends on how your paid time off benefits are structured. In California, there are two types of paid time off: time that “vests” and is considered to be part of an employee’s wages, and time that does not vest.
If an employee mentions feeling harassed, bullied, or discriminated against, but is concerned about retaliation, is the employer required to get the complaining employee’s permission before starting an investigation into the problem?