Summer Jobs – Don’t be Exploited
Summer vacation is around the corner, and many young people are lining up summer jobs this month. As you would think, the US Department of Labor has very specific rules concerning youth employment. Parents need to be very careful that their kids aren’t being exploited out there in the workforce, and may want to check…
Read MoreOvertime for Nurses
Nobody may work harder, and nobody may have more job satisfaction, than a nurse. But with all of those hours put in, do nurses generally qualify for overtime pay, or are they exempted under the FLSA? The answer to that question may depend on what kind of nurse you are, what your duties are, what…
Read MoreIs Your Layoff Really Retaliation?
What if what looks like a standard layoff is really hiding an illegal act, such as retaliation, against an employee? Retaliation may be hard to pin down, but it may be actionable if all of the facts line up. Basically, a retaliatory firing is one that occurs because the employee has complained of discrimination or…
Read MoreOvertime for Journalists
Are reporters entitled to overtime pay? Will they write about it more if they are? Even with the well- documented decline of print media, there are certainly enough reporters left on the job for this to be an ongoing issue. And reporters facing layoffs will certainly have any number of questions that could be directed to…
Read MoreLawyer 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…
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