Susan Fentin MA
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Mikki, the FMLA requires that an employee work 12 months and 1250 hours in order to be eligible for leave. If your employee has worked the 1250 hours before she goes out on vacation, she will become eligible for FMLA when she has been "employed" for…
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This is my favorite lawyer's answer: it depends. You should consult legal counsel because the issue will revolve around the amount of common control exercised. Because you have the possibility that the entities will be considered to be part of the s…
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Careful, Diedre. The FMLA is a federal law and same sex marriage is a state law. The Defense of Marriage Act will allow you to ignore same sex marriages if your company chooses to do so, although many companies are choosing to extend those rights …
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Random testing in Massachusetts is prohibited except for safety sensitive positions. For example, a fork lift driver could be randomly tested, but a clerical support person could not. The applicable statute is the Massachusetts Privacy Act; there …
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I am assuming that you are not a federal contractor or subcontractor, because if you were, you would be required to have an Affirmative Action Plan. If you are not required to have an affirmative action plan, I believe that you are better off with …
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As her employer you have an obligation to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into the incident and take prompt and effective steps to stop the harassment, if any occurred. You should definitely investigate, hear both sides of the story, an…
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Whew! That's quite a story! I should begin by stating that since we do not oficially represent your company, I cannot give you any legal advice on your situation. I do have a couple of general comments that might be helpful: 1. Massachusetts is …
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Probationary periods are carry overs from the union context, where until an employee had passed the probationary period they were not members of the union and not protected by the collective bargaining agreement. We usually recommend to our clients…
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Hello! Welcome to the Forum! I'm Susan Fentin, associate editor of the Massachusetts Employment Law Letter, and an attorney with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, where we practice exclusively labor and employment law and represent only management. B…
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I know I'm weighing in a little late, but I thought I might add that supervisors (which I would assume would include your recalcitrant boss) may be PERSONALLY liable for violations of wage and hour law. If you'd like something more formal that migh…
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Well, I know I only was on air for five seconds, but I figure that means I'm owed an additional 10 seconds of fame! (Who was it who said we all are entitled to 15 seconds fo fame?) I wasn't aware we got more play this morning...thanks for the head…
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Rebecca, what is more significant here is that you as a supervisor have received information regarding a complaint of harassment based on race. You should report this complaint to your supervisor and/or human resources immediately and encourage the…
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Did you send a release to the references before they responded? We recommend that our clients have a release on their reference checks that releases you and them from any liability for anything that they might say. Most companies require such a re…
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Interesting case! Although I am not familiar with these DOE protections, the case is similar to others that might allege OSHA or other retaliation. And even though it appears that the plaintiff's complaint may have been valid, remember that that d…
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You have a number of obligations, both under state and federal law, depending upon your size and the nature of your closing (sale, transfer of ownership, layoff, etc.) I strongly recommend you contact labor and employment counsel for advice on this …
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I have a client who has recently instituted breathalyzer testing for employees where reasonable suspicion exists that they could be under the influence. The level of alcohol that triggers further testing is relatively low, but I don't recall offhan…
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There is no legal requirement that the employer pay for parking tickets for a leased company car. In fact, most companies have provisions in their employee handbooks or in the agreement with the employee regarding the company car that say that the …
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The Supreme Court of the United STates is going to tell us what the answer to this question is, but in the meantime, the safest route is to notice his FMLA leave now, and keep him as an inactive employee for an additional 12 weeks, unpaid, with the …
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This change to your policy is fine. Just be sure to give your employees sufficient advance notice and to explain the procedures required and the consequences clearly. Also you might want to have a procedure to deal with changes required when a su…
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I don't think you can deny them a copy of the physical, especially if you are using it as a basis for their termination. And why would you want to? It's not private, at least not from them, and it should substantiate the rationale behind your deci…
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Christine, your friend is right. Salaried, non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime for every hour worked over 40 in a given work week. They are entitled to time and a half, calculated according to their "regular rate", unless the employer ha…
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I am not aware of any specific nursing or hospital regulations that cover this topic, but there may very well be one. You should check with your regulatory authority to see whether there is something governing this area. Most of our clients who ar…
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Well, at the risk of sounding like a lawyer, "It depends!" If you have an employee handbook, check its language to see whether the company is bound to a specific schedule or whether there's some flexibility. If your handbook doesn't cover this, yo…
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Blanche, I would conclude that the previous layoff falls within the WARN act requirements because of aggregation. If you had laid off all the employees on the same date, they would have received the 60 days notice/pay and so they are entitled to it…
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Dan, we recommend that you evaluate all your terminations by asking whether your conduct is fair, consistent, done for business based reasons, and supported by documentation. In this case, it sounds like you have been fair, although I wonder if you…
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Dan, you should probably proceed with caution here. It is not clear from your message whether the employee was simply commenting on such practices, alerting the paper to possible violations, or whether he was the subject of an investigation. You w…
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These messages are inspiring me to do more work related reading at night...not exxclusively, (looking for balance as recommended) but useful titles to help my clients with their problems. Meanwhile, I can't put down John Adams by David McCullough -…
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In this day and age, you can't totally ignore threatening behavior. even if it seems unlikely. If you have an EAP program, you should refer the threatening employee for counseling. If not, could you talk to him and ask him how he's doing and if ev…
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Although the federal standards are all over the place (from one to 30 years or more, depending upon the statute) the Massachusetts recordkeeping requirements are simple: Payroll records, 2 years, Time sheets, worksheets and other records for the …
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You can have a separate part of your application procedure that requests information for the purposes of affirmative action compliance. The form that I have seen states that providing this information is voluntary and I believe it can also be done a…