Last month the United States Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”) delivered a pro-employer ruling on the standard of proof required under certain provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In E.M.D. Sales, Inc. v. Carrera, the...more
2/19/2025
/ Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
EMD Sales Inc v Carrera ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Minimum Wage ,
Over-Time ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour
On April 23, 2024, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a final rule which will raise the salary threshold required to classify employees as exempt from overtime pay requirements under federal law.[1]...more
6/13/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Labor Regulations ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Popular ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On April 23, 2024, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a final rule which will raise the salary threshold required to classify employees as exempt from overtime pay requirements under federal law. ...more
4/25/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Labor Reform ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Once an employee requests an accommodation, the employer has a duty to engage in an “interactive process” to try to determine whether the employer can accommodate the employee’s disability...more
7/6/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interactive Process ,
Medical Leave ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reversal ,
Summary Judgment
While the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is hopefully behind us, the disease still impacts the employment landscape and likely will continue to do so for some time. Out of the millions of people who have had COVID in the...more
The wait is finally over. Yesterday, January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rendered two much-anticipated opinions announcing whether federal regulations mandating workplace COVID-19 precautions...more
1/14/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Biden v Missouri ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Federation of Independent Business v Department of Labor and OSHA ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
After a wild weekend following some headline-grabbing court rulings, employers are heading into the holidays wondering what on earth is going on with workplace COVID-19 vaccine requirements. While clarity remains elusive, our...more
12/20/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Time Extensions ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
On November 30, 2021, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued an order granting a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the vaccine mandate for federal contractors set forth in...more
12/2/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
After weeks of waiting, we finally have the new emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, pertaining to workforce vaccination requirements and other COVID-19- related safety...more
11/5/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Deadlines ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Health and Safety ,
New Rules ,
OSHA ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced several “Path Out of the Pandemic” initiatives designed to increase vaccination rates through workplace vaccine mandates. While the “splashiest” announcement–with potentially...more
10/5/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employees ,
Covered Employer ,
Covered Entities ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Although most employers were hesitant to implement vaccine mandates following the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, the still-surging pandemic, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, has caused many companies...more
9/20/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
There finally seems to be a light at the end of the dark, COVID-19 pandemic tunnel. As spring transitions to summer, COVID-19 case numbers are decreasing while the vaccination rate is increasing. Given these positive...more
6/7/2021
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Training ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Government employees enjoy more protection than employees of private-sector companies when it comes to speaking their minds about politics or other matters of public concern outside the workplace. A public employee may not be...more
Employers will continue having to address concerns related to COVID-19 in the workplace as far into the future as one can predict. Of immediate concern to Employers is curtailing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. One...more
Employee attendance problems are probably the most common reason for disciplinary action and discharge. Yet many employers pay surprisingly little attention to their attendance policies. I often see policies consisting of...more
Ensuring correct employee classification for purposes of compliance with wage and hour laws is one of the most daunting challenges employers face. Classification criteria such as being engaged in “management” and use of...more
As this recent case demonstrates, consistent documentation can be your saving grace in defending a wrongful termination lawsuit, while inconsistent enforcement of rules can be your downfall.
Facts -
Ramona DeBra worked...more
2/7/2019
/ ADEA ,
Adverse Employment Action ,
Age Discrimination ,
Appeals ,
But For Causation ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Performance Improvement Plans ,
Poor Job Performance ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
Summary Judgment ,
Trial Court Orders ,
Wrongful Termination
It’s hard to believe another year is coming to a close, but here we are. As part of my personal year-end celebration, I have prepared an informal ranking of the top mistakes I’ve tried to help clients avoid, correct, or...more
1/7/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Email Policies ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Job Descriptions ,
Misclassification ,
Screening Procedures ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
I was reading recently about a lawsuit in which four plaintiffs’ law firms tried for years to pursue a class action lawsuit against a Chipotle operation up in Minnesota. The claim was that a shift supervisor at one of the...more
11/15/2018
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Back Wages ,
Class Action ,
Decertification ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Off-The-Clock ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Wage and Hour
It’s that time of year again, with many employers offering free flu shots to employees in hopes of reducing flu-related absences and resulting productivity decreases in the months ahead. Most often, a flu shot is offered as a...more
11/5/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
At-Will Employment ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Flu Shot Rule ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations
A recent decision by the Court of Appeals of Tennessee, in which the employer prevailed in a retaliatory discharge claim, demonstrates the importance of (1) maintaining confidentiality of workplace investigations and (2)...more
8/3/2018
/ Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Confidential Employer Investigations ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hospitals ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Poor Job Performance ,
Protected Activity ,
Race Discrimination ,
Racist Remarks ,
Retaliation ,
Salespersons ,
Workplace Investigations ,
Wrongful Termination
I received a call recently from an employer that wanted to know if it could exclude a newly created job category from an annual bonus program. The employer told me that payments under the program were based on the company’s...more
From: Tennessee Employment Law Letter | 04/01/2018 -
Employees who have taken or who are currently taking leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) aren’t necessarily protected from being selected for...more