Employment Laws

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In a bold move by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (which covers Georgia, Florida and Alabama), the Court has overruled the long-standing precedent of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (“Commission”) that when a supervisor engages in safety-related misconduct, his or her “rogue conduct” is imputed to the employer.

The DOL recently announced that it is sponsoring a contest to develop a smartphone app that would allow customers to determine whether a certain business is compliant with federal labor laws.

OSHA, EEOC and other DOL-managed agencies often insist on a condition that resolutions of matters include a public notice on that agency’s website that denotes the agency’s prowess in securing a penalty or fine.  If the DOL insists on such a condition as a means to provide data for this smartphone application, employers should consider the impact of this future recurring data affecting its scorecard on the app with its customers, clients or vendors.

Who has not felt like they needed to take a few days off from work to regroup and clear their minds before tacking your job’s many challenges? I call these days off “mental health days.” While everyone needs to take some time off (whether it’s over a weekend, extended vacation, or holiday), a federal district court in Florida has confirmed that the need for mental health days does not count as a serious medical condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”).

The EEOC just sued J.C. Penney claiming that it refused to hire a woman at a Brunswick, Georgia store because she was pregnant.  While that is not big news (except to perhaps the woman and the management at that J.C. Penney location), the lawsuit offers some good lessons.

Why?  Well, the case involves two interesting set of accusations. 

REMINDER:  All employers covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (”FMLA”) were mandated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to display the new FMLA poster by March 8, 2013.

Background:  Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton signed the FMLA into law.  The law, requiring all employers with 50 or more employees to provide job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons, ranks as one of the most insidious and complicated federal statutes for employers. Instead of using the FMLA’s 20th anniversary as a catalyst to provide FMLA clarifications, the DOL instead, issued additional federal regulations that implement statutory changes ensuring the FMLA will continue to be one of the biggest compliance headaches for covered employers.

A few days ago, I watched the PBS special, MAKERS: Women Who Make America, about the women’s movement and women’s struggles for equality at home and at work. The documentary highlighted the combined efforts of women across the country in their fight to eradicate gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and unequal pay in the work place. One thing that was particularly shocking was how members of the federal government in the past fought hard to maintain the status quo and keep women out of the workforce.

Oh, how times have changed.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued new Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) regulations that will take effect on March 8, 2013.  The new regulations expand the FMLA’s protections to provide families of eligible veterans the same job-protected leave available to families of service members, and expand leave opportunities for family members when a service member is deployed.  Additionally, the regulations expand and clarify the application of the FMLA to airline personnel and flight crews.

The last post, Part 1, set forth the first five items on a wish list from an attorney’s perspective – specific ways in which a Human Resources department can minimize problems down the road.  The final five items are just as important.  Read on …

Human Resources professionals have a job that requires a great deal of effort – a good HR Manager will stay on top of developments in employment law; establish sound, consistent procedures for managing typical staff issues, such as leave requests, on-site injuries, and separation from employment; and cultivate good relationships between employees and management.  From the other side of the phone line, however, comes a wish list from an attorney’s perspective – what the Human Resources department should consider doing  to help minimize difficulty down the road and ensure as successful an HR year as possible.