Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued Administrator’s Interpretation (AI) No. 2013-1, which can be found at www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/adminintrprtn/fmla/2013/fmlaai2013_1.htm. The AI clarifies that the age of onset of a disability is irrelevant when determining whether an employee is entitled to take leave to care for an adult son […]
An employer will pay $88,500 to settle claims that it failed to provide the right accommodation to a worker with a disability, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission behalf of Jose Arteaga Rivas, a sheet metal mechanic who worked for […]
Employers must not impose probation on employees for excessive absences that include leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. To do so is akin to using a disciplinary measure to penalize employees for taking qualified FMLA leave. So ruled the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey as it permitted the FMLA […]
The U.S. Supreme Court again refused to decide whether the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to reassign employees with disabilities to vacant positions, without requiring them to compete with other candidates. The Court declined May 28 to hear EEOC v. United Airlines Inc., No. 10-cv-01699, 2012 WL 718503 (7th Cir. March 7, 2012). The circuit-court divide on […]
When an employer fails to participate in the interactive process of finding a workplace accommodation for an employee with a disability, that misstep can be used as evidence of discrimination. Such a failure is not, however, an ADA violation when it stands alone, the 7th Circuit ruled in Basden v. Professional Transportation, Inc., No. 11-2880 […]
PTO policies are considered easier to administer than separate vacation, sick, child care, etc., but there are many policy issues to be decided before your program runs smoothly and avoids lawsuits, says attorney Katherine Marques. Unfortunately, to complicate matters, many state laws (and some city laws) cover sick time and/or vacation time, so proceed with […]
FMLA—always rated the number one headache (well, migraine) for HR managers. Learning the definitions of “foreseeable” and “as soon as practicable” helps lessen the pain. When Leave Is Foreseeable When the need for leave is foreseeable, the law requires that employees provide their employers with at least 30 days’ advance notice before FMLA is to […]
The agency responsible for enforcing the Americans with Disabilities has revised several of its guidance documents to reflect recent changes to the law. The May 15 changes were necessary because of the ADA Amendments Act, which expanded the law’s coverage in 2009, the U.S said in a press release. The documents explain how ADA applies […]
Yesterday’s Advisor featured attorney Katherine Marques’ 11 questions to ask in designing a PTO policy. Today, she shares key success factors for PTO, plus we introduce the all-HR-in-one-place website, HR.BLR.com®. Marques, an associate in the New York office of Holland & Knight LLP, offered her tips at a recent webinar sponsored by BLR® and HR […]
The Americans with Disabilities Act’s employment protections only extend to individuals with disabilities who can perform the essential functions of their jobs. And when it comes to deciding which functions are “essential,” courts continue to defer to employers’ judgment. In Knutson v. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc., No. 12-2240, (April 3, 2013), the U.S. 8th Circuit […]