Over a year ago, I wrote our first blog post on HRLawMatters.com.  It was about a favorite phrase of labor and employment lawyers:  “No good deed goes unpunished.”  It discussed how employers doing “good deeds” for employees was often the right thing, but that if not done thoughtfully and carefully, doing good deeds can lead to regrets and “punishment.”

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. 

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (the “USCIS”) recently released the new Eligibility Verification Form, Form I-9 (Rev. 03/08/13), as well as a revised Handbook for Employers (M-274).  The revised form is longer—two pages, rather than one—and includes additional instructions for completing the form.  It also includes new fields for e-mail address, phone number, and foreign passport numbers in Section 1 of the Form.

The National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB”) recently announced that it will seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the D.C. Circuit’s Noel Canning decision, which invalidated President Obama’s purported recess appointments of three of the Board’s five members.  As we previously discussed here, the D.C. Circuit held that because the Board members were not properly appointed, the Board lacked the quorum it needed to act.

Name:  Andrea Towe
Title:  Employee Relations Consultant
Company:  Southern Company Services, Inc.

1. How many years have you been working in HR?  Approximately 8 years in HR, and 6 years in Employee Relations-General Counsel.

2.  Favorite thing about working in HR?  I enjoy helping others with their career goals and resolving personnel issues.  I also like the variety of work involved in HR.

3.  Best piece of advice you ever received about a career in HR?  One must have patience and superior listening skills!  

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.


Common sense tells us that it is a good idea for certain companies – hospitals, physicians’ offices, nursing homes, day care centers, and more, to take appropriate measures to safeguard the health of both the workforce and any population it serves.  By this logic, a policy requiring healthcare employees to receive flu shots seems reasonably calculated to protect employees and patrons, as well as to control the spread of communicable disease.  But, is it legal? 

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.