Attendence

What is the Maximum Leave an Employee Can Take?

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Sears Roebuck & Co. recently settled with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission a class-action lawsuit for $6.2 million, the largest monetary award for a single Americans With Disabilities Act (”ADA”) suit in EEOC history.
The accusation against Sears was that the company discriminated against the disabled because it had an inflexible policy that allowed injured employees [...]

Controlling Absenteeism

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

I often get questions from employers about firing employees for absenteeism. Like any good employment attorney, I ask the employer about the scope of the problem. How many absences has the employee taken? What were the reasons for the absenteeism? What sort of verbal and written warnings has the employee received for absenteeism?
Astonishingly, I usually [...]

Brief Updates

Friday, January 16th, 2009

The Department of Labor has released new notification forms to be used with Family and Medical Leave. If you have more than 50 employees (names on the payroll, whether full or part time), you should have an FMLA policy in your handbook and the FMLA poster on your employee bulletin board. Once an employee has [...]

FMLA Revisions

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

In one of the Bush administration’s final regulatory acts, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued 762 pages of revisions to the Family and Medical Leave Act. The changes have been two years in the making and not unexpectedly are more favorable to employers than employees. Family advocacy groups are pretty unhappy with the new [...]

Employees are Entitled to Few Rights

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

There is a wonderful group of citizens called Panhandle Twenty/20 that is trying to solve a difficult problem in this area. About one fourth of adults in the Panhandle don’t have a high school diploma. Approximately 14% of students in the class of 2004 in the Amarillo Independent School District didn’t graduate from high [...]

Military Reemployment Rules

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

            Since 2001, the United States has deployed more than 1 million troops for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This means many employers are faced with reemployment issues concerning employees that left their jobs to undertake military service.
            The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994 regulates the rights of individuals [...]