Archive for 2009
Lawyer Layoffs
It may be hard to believe, but the buzz among attorneys in these days of so much financial difficulty has as much to do with lawyers being laid off as with their clients having hard times. More and more lawyers, it seems, are now looking for legal advice from employment attorneys. Lawyer layoffs have been growing considerably…
Read MoreFamily and Medical Leave Updated Poster
The U.S. Department of Labor recently updated its basic informational poster to reflect changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act, including the new military family leave entitlements enacted under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, as well as changes in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), all of which took effect on January 16th.…
Read MoreMichelle’s Law Makes Health Insurance Companies Cover Students on Medical Leave
Whether you are a college student, or you have one, you know that only full-time college students generally continue to receive health insurance benefits after the age of 19, with no coverage for any student who has gaps in that full-time status. But that is about to change for students undergoing health problems. Starting next…
Read MoreHow Do You Define “Work Time” Anyway?
In order to know if the time you spend at work might be classified as overtime by the FLSA, you have to know how work time itself is defined. The FLSA language defining what constitutes work itself is vague enough, though, that each situation probably has to be figured out on a case-by-case basis. For…
Read MorePresident Appoints New EEOC Leadership
President Barak Obama recently announced his choices to head up the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), essentially promoting two current Commissioners to leadership posts at the federal agency. Stuart J. Ishimaru was appointed as Acting Chairman of the EEOC and Christine M. Griffin as Acting Vice Chair. Ishimaru’s term will expire on July 1, 2012. He…
Read MoreBlackBerry Overtime
Ever make a work- related call or send an email from your Smartphone when you weren’t actually “on the clock”? Most people seem to be doing that these days, especially in busy Atlanta. You may very well be entitled to overtime pay for those activities, under some circumstances, as a new term has just leaped…
Read MoreOvertime Pay for Information Technology Workers
Information technology workers are notoriously overworked. They put in long hours, field endless emergency calls in and out of regular hours, get no credit when things go well and take the blame when anything goes wrong. Moderns cities like Atlanta have more than their share of IT workers. But because of an often- misunderstood FLSA…
Read MoreIs Travel Time Overtime?
One side issue that often arises in talking about overtime is travel time. The FLSA has some guidelines on when an employee’s time spent travelling is compensable. When is it considered to be overtime, and when it is travelling from Atlanta to Marietta considered to be all in a days’ work? For the most part,…
Read MoreGeorgia Jury Duty and Court Attendance Leave Laws
There are numerous urban legends and endless misinformation about employers’ rights and obligations to employees when the employee has to appear in court (as something other than a defendant). Georgia Law on Court Attendance Leave Here is a basic summary of relevant Georgia law on this subject: Georgia’s jury duty leave law comes in under…
Read MorePresident Obama Signs Ledbetter
The first bill that President Obama has signed while in office was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed on Thursday, January 29th, and which overturns the 2007 US Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Ledbetter, who travelled with the President on the inauguration train from Philly to DC, and who…
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