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In recent years, employers’ attorneys have been recommending “limitations on claims” provisions in employment contracts and employee handbooks. These provisions usually state that employees must bring all claims they may have against their employer within six months or a year of discovering a problem. These provisions are designed to limit employees to a shorter period […]
You know that employees are entitled to reimbursement for work-related expenses. You’ve set up policies and procedures for employees to report expenses and request reimbursement. But what if employees don’t follow your rules? According to a recent federal District Court opinion, that doesn’t matter: They’re still entitled to be reimbursed. 400+ pages of state-specific, easy-read […]
Ever wonder just how far government agencies will go to punish employers who don’t pay back wages? As the owners of Southern California Maid Services and Carpet Cleaning Inc. found out recently, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is prepared to take misbehaving employers all the way to the jail house to enforce back wage […]
This month, the real news is about what employment-related bills Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t sign. The most notable bill struck down by the Governor is S.B. 242, which would have made it unlawful for employers to discriminate against an employee based on the employee’s primary language, or to ban employees from speaking any language in […]
Is every employee who makes a formal complaint considered a “whistleblower”? The federal District Court says no. Mark Shulthies, a long time Amtrak employee working in California, sent an email to his supervisor complaining that the company’s decision to reorganize certain aspects of its service between the Bay Area and Bakersfield posed a “danger to […]
A California court recently ruled that an employer’s failure to accommodate an employee’s disability on one single day, even though the employee had been appropriately accommodated for months before that, can still result in employer liability. The employer dropped the ball, the court said, by failing to notify all managers of the employee’s accommodation needs. […]
Most employees today don’t punch a time clock; they generally work a set schedule, such as 9 am to 5 pm. Because these employees work a regular schedule, many employers don’t bother to track their time (or require the employees to track their time). This means that each paycheck reflects pay for the time scheduled […]
In response to the published results of a recent survey of low-wage workers in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced that the Department of Labor (DOL) will be putting at least 250 more wage and hour inspectors on the ground to audit employer compensation practices. In other words, […]
How should you respond to a discrimination complaint that appears to be completely unfounded? As GoDaddy, Inc. recently learned, even if the employee’s complaint appears to be baseless, you still must treat the complaint as serious and take all the same precautions you would with other bias complaints. If you don’t, you could be liable […]
I have a question regarding exempt salaried employees who work 40 hour work weeks. Can their salary and hourly work weeks be decreased? For example if they had $4450 in monthly earnings working 40 hour work weeks, Could I decrease their salary by 20% and now have them work 32 hour work weeks? If this […]