Employers should start thinking about how changes in the tests for the federal overtime exemptions will affect their payroll costs and compensation plans. An employee must meet both a salary test (meaning that they are paid a salary, currently at least $455 per week) and a duties test to qualify for the exemptions (except for
Employees Reject Union in One of the First “Quickie Elections”
In 1947, Shawe Rosenthal’s founder, Earle K. Shawe, filed the first unfair labor practice charge against a union under the Taft-Hartley Act. Now, in another major labor law first, S&R represented a Baltimore-based distribution company in the first NLRB election conducted by the Board in its Region 5 (generally covering the mid-Atlantic area) under its
Inability to Speak English Is a Disability?!!!
OK, I know that I frequently and flippantly say that, under the expanded American with Disabilities Act, we are all disabled. But the situation described in a recent Washington Post blog found by one of my law partners is really beyond ridiculous! Apparently, individuals who can’t speak English may receive federal Social Security disability benefits!
Are Service Writers Exempt Under the FLSA?
Whether Auto Dealer Service Writers (also called Service Advisors) are exempt from federal and state overtime pay requirements has been an issue for years. The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has flip-flopped on the issue since the exemption for “any salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles” was written into the
Say What? NLRB ALJ Finds Hospital’s English-Only Rule Unlawful
The latest office fodder for me and my colleague, Jason Usher (who formerly worked at the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”)), involves an Administrative Law Judge’s (“ALJ”) decision, Valley Health System LLC, that found that a healthcare employer’s English-only rule violated the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”).
Many employers, especially those in the healthcare
Accommodating a Teacher’s Fear of Children?
I love these odd cases – like the one-armed man who wanted to be an “unarmed” security guard, about which I blogged previously. Here’s another one that tickled my funny bone – the teacher with pedophobia, which is a debilitating fear of children! (Let’s just absorb the irony of that for a moment, shall
The Fisherman and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
This case, Yates v. United States, is outside our usual employment law zip code, but it’s such a wacky one, it lured us in. It involves a fisherman who failed to preserve, as evidence, undersized fish that he had caught in violation of federal law. A federal agent found the undersized fish during an
Be Thoughtful About FMLA Certifications
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), an employer can (and should) require a certification from a health care provider to support an employee’s or the family member’s need for leave because of a serious health condition. This certification is the basis for determining whether the employee has a serious health condition requiring leave,
Can You E-mail FMLA Notices?
So I previously wrote about the problem with proving that an employee received a notice required by the Family and Medical Leave Act by regular mail, where there was no delivery confirmation. In a variation on that theme, a court recently held that proving an employee received an emailed FMLA notice could be equally problematic.
A New Boss Is Not A Reasonable Accommodation
The bad boss is a cliché. There have been many movies about evil supervisors- for example, “Horrible Bosses” and (because one wasn’t enough) “Horrible Bosses 2.” There are TV shows featuring frustrating or bad bosses – like Michael Scott in “The Office,” or Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons.” There’s even a website where you can