The Federal Department of Labor (DOL) has been hard at work for the last few months, preparing (among other things) a major overhaul to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime regulations. All of this remains tentative and will certainly be subject to lawsuits once implemented. Yesterday President Obama previewed one change… More
Month: June 2015
Can you rely on an employee’s FMLA submission? Not if you want to deny the FMLA leave!
This lesson was learned the hard way by the Lehigh Valley Health Network (“Lehigh”). Lehigh had an employee who submitted a medical certification requesting Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. The employer denied the leave because the certification did not identify a serious health condition. Shortly thereafter, the employee was fired for excessive absences. The… More
Congress May Step in to Prevent Overreaching Non-Competes
The trade off for a non-compete or restrictive covenant is pretty clear: Company will invest in employee, train employee, and expose employee to the market — and employee will not turn around and use all that information and exposure to hurt Company on behalf of a new employer. But what was once reserved for top… More
Willful Ignorance May Not Be a Defense to Discrimination
Company image is often important, and many companies wonder whether they can consider the company “look” when interviewing for new employees. While you can require that employees wear a neatly pressed suit to work each day (or at least recently-laundered clothes ♥), additional restrictions on employee dress may have unintended implications. The United States Supreme… More
Fair Pay and Safe Workplace – Proposed Rule Links Labor Violations to Unethical Conduct
Government contractors– check out my colleague David Robbins excellent explaination of the new rules re labor violations. http://procurementfraudblog.com/2015/06/03/fair-pay-and-safe-workplaces-proposed-rule-links-labor-violations-to-unethical-conduct/
Department of Labor Revises Family and Medical Leave Act Forms
On May 27, 2015, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued new versions of its Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) forms. The previous versions expired February 28, 2015. The new forms are good through May 31, 2018. The good news– just because they are new, does not mean they are very different. The only substantive change… More