Archive for January, 2009

Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Is Now Law

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

As predicted in this blog and by most employment law pundits, President Obama is expected today to sign bill favoring employees as his first piece of major legislation. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act overturns a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2007, which restricted the statute of limitations on Equal Pay Act claims.
Lilly Ledbetter worked [...]

Final Paychecks in Texas

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

I get lots of questions about final paychecks in Texas, so I thought I would give you a quick review of the Texas Payday Law.
Your employees must receive their final paychecks on the sixth calendar day after they are laid off, discharged, fired or otherwise terminated involuntarily, or on the next regular payday if they [...]

Firing without Fear

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Many Texas business owners and managers that I know are extremely authoritative and competent until it comes to firing an employee. Then the most confident bosses become fearful. Getting sued by an employee scares them and rightfully so. But times are tough economically and you may have to terminate some employees just to keep your [...]

Bush’s Employment Law Legacy

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Since this is the last day of President George W. Bush’s presidency, I thought it appropriate to look back and see what employment laws have been passed while he has been in office. While generally considered lax on enforcement of employment laws (except with regard to employing illegal immigrants), there have been several sweeping changes [...]

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 [...]

Understanding Changes in Disability Discrimination Law

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

2009 is going to be remembered as the year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (”ADA”) became the full employment act for employees’ lawyers. That’s because dramatic changes to the ADA went into effect on January 1, 2009. No longer can an employer assume that the ADA is an concern only if an applicant shows [...]

Lessons from NASCAR’s Discrimination Suit

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Six years ago, I had never watched a NASCAR race and would have laughed if you had suggested I ever would. Aaahhh, what love will do to an otherwise rational person! Enter Rohn Butterfield into my life, and I can now tell you that there are 36 races in a season, the Daytona 500 (the [...]

Wal-Mart’s Costly Wage and Hour Mistakes

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

The big news recently in the employment law arena is that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has agreed to settle 63 wage and hour lawsuits in 43 states. The settlement of these class actions will cost Wal-Mart somewhere between $352 million and $640 million!
What the heck did Wal-Mart do wrong that could cost them a half billion [...]

Congress Set to Consider Employment Laws

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

It’s January after an election year, and things are going to start moving fast in the world of employment law. The 111th Congress of the United States convened this morning and by the end of this week two laws may have passed that drastically affect employers.
An entry on this blog dated December 1, 2008, predicted [...]

Smoking as a Hiring Disqualification

Monday, January 5th, 2009

The latest employment controversy in Amarillo is Baptist St. Anthony hospital’s new policy of refusing to hire new employees whose pre-employment drug test shows the presence of nicotine. BSA is straightforward about its refusal to hire any new smokers for its non-smoking campus, in part because its sole mission is healthcare. Click here to read [...]