Real Life Employment Law
Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the in-house counsel and Human Resources professionals who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have "seen it all," along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. These individuals often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these "Quirky Questions" can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate practical and legal issues that are not immediately apparent.
This Quirky Employment Questions Blog addresses unanticipated questions regarding the workforce.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts and reactions to the questions presented. We also encourage you to submit questions that you would like to see addressed, subject to these guidelines.
Stephen D. Bell
Michael Droke
Joseph W. Hammell
Sarah Andrews Herman
Ryan E. Mick
William J. Miller
Melissa Raphan
Gregory M. Saylin
Gabrielle Wirth
David C. SingerBLOG CONTACT INFO
E: Wirth.Gabrielle@dorsey.com
P: 714.800.1455
Question: The recent media coverage of Ebola has been overwhelming. As an employer, I want to be prepared and proactive to protect our employees and our business, but I also don’t want to overreact to what is seemingly a very small threat. What steps can, and should, I take to protect my employees? Does Ebola potentially implicate any state or...
Question: Our company allows employees to sell up to 40 hours of their accrued PTO (accrued vacation) each year. If an employee elects to sell the accrued PTO, we pay it out in a lump sum at the end of the year. Does this raise any concerns?
Question: We have a new CFO who is upset by the huge amount of accrued vacation we have to carry on the books. We have a cap of two times the annual accrual. He says most high tech companies like ours have unlimited vacation plans and that this eliminates the need to carry accrued vacation. Is this a new trend? ...
Question: We are a Colorado company which manages apartment complexes and use background checks including credit checks as part of our applicant screening. Yesterday, an applicant objected, writing on the application “I do not consent – this is illegal under Colorado law.” Is this a change in the law?
Question: Our company is located in California. We have language in our handbook that says all our employees are “at-will.” Our existing handbook also includes provisions setting out the conditions under which we will lay people off and what benefits they would be entitled to if that were necessary. This was put in place five years ago. Given the current...
Quirky Question # 106: We’ve heard a lot about the swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus. So far, we have not had many, if any, problems with this flu strain in our workplace. Nevertheless, we are looking for guidance as to how we should handle various issues that could arise if the H1N1 virus becomes much worse with...
Quirky Question # 103: We recently opened operations in California and are concerned that our current PTO policy does not meet California state standards. We were caught unawares by the new Massachusetts Supreme Court case on vacation pay and know that the law on vacation policies differs from state to state. What should we be doing to protect ourselves from...
Quirky Question # 90: Several years ago our company adopted as arbitration policy. We felt that this was one way we could control our employment litigation costs. Our arbitration policy is set forth in our Employee Handbook, which is available to our employees on line. We encourage our employees to review the Handbook if they have any questions about our...
Quirky Question # 54: We have an employee who has missed a fair amount of work due to various surgeries. As set forth in our handbook, we offer FMLA leave for employees who have worked 1250 hours in the preceding 12 months. When we were informed that our employee would need to miss additional time due to some follow-up surgeries,...
Quirky Question # 17: We run a retail clothing firm. Our goal is to cultivate a youthful, preppy image. We prohibit “facial jewelry” with the exception of earrings. This prohibition is set out in our Employee Handbook. One of our employees insists on wearing “facial jewelry,” displaying various facial piercings. Can’t we prohibit this practice? Can we tell our employee...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
Jack SullivanJack is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employment group, where he focuses his practice on employment adv...
Ieva AubinAs an employment and business immigration attorney, ...
Michael DrokeMike started his career as a client, not a lawyer...
Matt DurhamMatt defends employers in Utah and throughout the ...
Aaron GoldsteinAaron is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Josh HughesJosh’s experience spans trial and appellate advoc...
Jillian KornblattJillian is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Laura LestradeLaura began practicing at Dorsey in 1992 and has s...
Ryan MickFor more than a decade, Ryan has counseled corpo...
Nick PappasNick litigates and counsels with respect to com...
Melissa RaphanMelissa is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor and Employ...
Gabrielle WirthEmployers turn to Gabrielle for guidance on how they...
