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
Quirky Question # 71: The country is in a recession. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. employers reduced the size of their workforces by more than 500,000 employees in November alone, with an eleven-month total of more than 1.5 million. Like every company, we’re considering whether to reduce the size of our workforce sometime during 2009, assuming the...
Quirky Question # 70: Our company frequently hires workers through employment placement agencies – some on a temporary basis, others for more long-term assignments. The placement company pays them and withholds employment taxes on their behalf. We sign contacts saying that the workers are independent contractors and we are not their employer. We recently terminated one of the workers who...
Quirky Question # 69: One of our key employees recently took a position with a competitor. We do not believe that he stole any of our trade secrets by taking hard copies or electronic copies of our confidential information. We checked his computer and it does not appear that he downloaded any data or emailed any information that we consider...
Quirky Question # 68: We recently filled a position with a highly qualified applicant. After we made him an offer, he informed us that he soon would be undergoing a sex change operation. He said that when he started the job, he would be a male, but within a month or two, his operation would be complete and he would...
Quirky Question # 67: We have a sexual harassment problem at our company. I’ll spare you the grim details but let’s just say it’s an ugly situation, involving several members of management. No physical contact or assaultive behavior but some widespread hostile environment issues. Among other behaviors, for example, our managers apparently thought it perfectly appropriate to entertain clients at...
Quirky Question # 66: One of our employees recently advised us that she and her two children were suffering from domestic violence by her husband. She requested us to provide her time off to move herself and her children out of the abusive situation at her home. Frankly, we were somewhat skeptical so we denied her request. Not long thereafter,...
Quirky Question # 65: Our company has made concerted efforts to encourage our employees to report incidents of possible discrimination. Our HR Department is responsible for receiving and investigating discrimination complaints. Through our internal investigation efforts, we have been able to head off possible litigation and address potentially serious problems. On the flip side, however, the internal investigation process has...
Quirky Question # 64: We have a number of programs at our company that are designed to reward employee behaviors that are important to the success of our company. For example, we provide a financial benefit to employees who have 100 percent attendance annually. Another example is that we provide our employees a bonus based on a combination of factors,...
Quirky Question # 63: We are defending against a claim of age discrimination. The plaintiff has lined up a number of current and former employees, each of whom apparently intend to testify that during their employment, they also were (or are) victims of age discrimination. Is this legit? These other individuals never filed claims of age discrimination against us.
Quirky Question # 62: Your pending question regarding the “temporal proximity” required for retaliation claims is interesting. I have a slightly different question, also involving retaliation claims. What is the scope of the protections provided by retaliation provisions. For example, if one member of a couple, both of whom worked for us, sues us for discrimination in connection with her...
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...
