Recent cases out of the Courts of Appeals for the Second and Eleventh Circuits highlight the risk employers run when monitoring or punishing employees for their social media activity. In both cases, the courts found that employers who had terminated employees based on their social media activity were subject to sanctions under federal law. In…
Preventing Future Headaches: The Importance of Written Job Descriptions Employers often underestimate the power of a well-written job description. Whether because their business is expanding too quickly or frankly, they have not thought about writing a job description, often times, written job descriptions get overlooked. But, in a recent Tenth Circuit case, a well-written job…
Employment Law Newsletter Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects individuals from unlawful employment practices of an employer based on that individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In recent years, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has attempted to solidify its stance, that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on…
EEOC’s Proposed Revision of EEO-1 Reports to Include Pay Data On January 29, 2016, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced it planned on revising the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). This revision would include collecting pay data from employers, including federal contractors, with more than 100 employees. The EEOC states that the new…
The FLSA and Inclement Weather Closures for Private Businesses The Northeastern part of the United States recently experienced a blizzard, which led to many businesses closing doors and telling employees to stay home. However, for some other businesses, which chose to stay open, employees called in saying they could not make it to work. While…
DOL Takes Last Step in Finalizing Persuader Rule Revision The Department of Labor (“DOL”) took the final step towards finalizing its revision of the “persuader rule” on December 7, 2015. The revision was first proposed in July 2011, but because of initial push-back, it fell to the wayside for several years. Due to recent efforts…
Dep’t of Labor Proposed Overtime Rule Changes Postponed Until Late 2016 In July 2015, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed several changes to its regulations defining which white collar employees are exempt from the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The goal of the proposed changes was to…
Browning-Ferris Decision by NLRB Changes Joint-Employer Standard On August 27, 2015 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released its 3-2 decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. The decision re-defined the NLRB’s standard for joint-employer status. Joint-employer status now can encompass situations where a company hires a contractor to staff its facilities. The company may…