Legislation Watch: Congress Considering Wide Range of Employment-Related Measures
Federal lawmakers are currently debating a variety of bills that could affect the workplace. Here’s a rundown of what’s on the table.
Tag: HR
Family and Medical Leave: Accompanying Ill Spouse to Funeral Doesn’t Qualify for Protected Leave, Court Rules
Arnulfo Gradilla worked as a sheet metal assembler at Riverside County-based Ruskin Manufacturing. When his father-in-law died, he received permission to take two or three days off work to accompany his invalid wife to the funeral in Mexico. Gradilla’s wife had a serious heart condition that was exacerbated by stress.
E-Alerts: Family and Medical Leave: No Leave Time for Mother Whose Son Was Abused by Caregiver
Stacey Detels, a claims representative for Farmers Insurance Exchange, took several weeks off of work after learning her toddler son’s caregiver may have been physically abusing him. Detels took her son to two health care providers to evaluate him, but the providers found no need for any treatment. Detels claimed that when she returned to […]
Family And Medical Leave: Mistake In FMLA Notice Permits Ineligible Employee To Take Leave; How To Avoid Similar Errors
Mix-ups with leave-related paperwork can bring on expensive headaches, as one employer recently discovered. Sam Duty, a mechanic and welder at Norton-Alcoa Proppants, injured his neck at work and took seven months of medical leave. But eventually a dispute erupted when it turned out that an error in the company’s FMLA paperwork gave Duty more […]
Workplace Discrimination: Ninth Circuit Makes It Easier For Employees To Sue When Employer Had Discriminatory–And Legitimate–Reasons For Discipline
Because of an important new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, employers may now have an uphill battle to fight when faced with allegations that discrimination was one factor—even if not the only factor—in an adverse employment decision such as a termination. We’ll explain what this is about and suggest ways you can avoid this […]
News Notes: Labor Department Proposes New Rules For Foreign Workers
The federal Department of Labor has proposed extensive changes to the process for filing a Labor Condition Application (LCA) to employ a foreign worker. The agency says that the new rules would speed up application processing, but HR professionals and immigration attorneys are less optimistic, predicting that the proposal could radically limit the situations in […]
Family And Medical Leave: Employees On Leave Not Immune From Layoff; Practical Pointers To Avoid Disputes
An employee who takes family and medical leave is generally entitled to return to the same job or an equivalent one at the end of the leave. But if you downsize while the employee is on leave, is this person’s job protected? A new California Court of Appeal case looks at this question—and how your […]
Retaliation Claims: How One Employer Defended An Employee’s Claim That Supervisors Retaliated After She Charged Boss Harassed Her; Documentation Is Key
Sendai Parker, a credit analyst for a Los Angeles area branch of Home Savings of America, charged that her supervisor sexually harassed her at a co-worker’s birthday lunch. The supervisor was eventually terminated. Then when Parker was fired two years later for alleged performance problems, she charged that her termination was the culmination of a […]
Accommodating Disabilities: Employer Hit With Punitive Damages For Firing Supervisor Who Accommodated Epileptic Employee
Kevin Terry, a customer service representative at a Time Warner Entertainment Company office in Fayetteville, Ark., suffered from nocturnal epileptic seizures. His supervisor, Jane Foster, accommodated his condition by allowing him to arrive after the usual starting time and stay later in the evening to make up the missed time. But when angry co-workers complained […]
Wrongful Discharge: Employer Must Pay $600,000 For Not Acting When Screaming Boss Made HR Manager’s Job Intolerable
Employers tend to give a lot of leeway to high-level or valuable employees. But if a rogue boss’s behavior goes unchecked—and forces other employees to quit—you may have a lawsuit on your hands. In one recent case, the employer’s failure to rein in a renegade manager turned into a $600,000 mistake.