Monthly Archives: July 2008

How to be a Christian Employee

Employee Rights,

Note: An edited version of this article ran in the July 27 edition of the Amarillo Sunday Globe-News. This is the whole column as originally written:

In this column last month, I tried to combine my legal expertise and my faith as I tackled the difficult topic of how to be a Christian employer. Click here for the column on being a Christian employer.

The most logical follow-up to last month’s column, which was written for owners and managers, seems to be to write about how to be an employee if you are a Christian. I want to explore practically and Biblically how a Christian employee should behave and if that is any different from the rest of the working world.

Most of us are in an employee role either to a boss or to our clients. The Bible has a lot to say about how we should play that servant role. Continue reading How to be a Christian Employee →

Employers Can Face Criminal Penalities

Ethics, Management, Termination

Ionia Management is a Greek company that manages a fleet of tanker vessels. The company was convicted of a crime and sentenced for its role in falsifying records to conceal the overboard dumping of waste oil from one of its vessels into international waters. The case is now on appeal to the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ionia Management says it was convicted based on the acts of rogue employees, who had been trained and repeatedly reminded of the company policy prohibiting the dumping but did it anyway. That leads us to the question of whether the company or its owners should face criminal fines and possibly jail for the acts of its subordinate employees. Or is civil liability in court more appropriate?

However you feel about criminal liability for corporate actions, in these post-Enron days, it is a fact of business. And as a employment lawyer, I feel compelled to point out a couple of the ways in which your employee relations can land you in criminal court. Continue reading Employers Can Face Criminal Penalities →

Salary Advance Form

Forms and Policies

In Texas and most states, an employer cannot deduct anything (except taxes) from an employee’s paycheck without written authorization from the employee. I often see this rule violated when it comes to salary advances. If you ever want to be repaid for a salary advance, use this or a similar form to get a very clear statement from the employee about your rights to make deductions from his paycheck

Otherwise, just think of your salary advance as a gift! If your employee quit tomorrow, there would be no way to require repayment if you don’t have a written agreement. And you would not be allowed by the Texas Payday Law to withhold what is owed to you from the employee’s final paycheck unless you have a written authorization signed by the employee.

Here is an easy form you can adapt for salary advances: Continue reading Salary Advance Form →

How to Poorly Manage Employees

Management

Do you want a good laugh today? Do you want to feel better about yourself as a manager or supervisor?

Then compare your management style to Edward Mike Davis, who ran Tiger Oil Company in Houston during the 1970s before the company went bankrupt during the oil bust of the 1980s.

“Tiger Mike” wrote some now very famous memos that are the epitome of poor management. However, I never found anything blatantly illegal in his memos. He was an equal opportunity bully, harassing and demeaning all of his employees.

Of course, his kind of supervision gives employees an powerful incentive to find something about which to sue. That incentive is known as vengeance.

Tiger Mike’s memos include such gems as these:

  • “DO YOUR JOB AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.”
  • “I have the privilege of swearing publicly, in front of anyone, or doing anything I want to because I pay the bills. When you work for me, you don’t have that privilege.”
  • “We do not pay starvation wages, and there are some people left in this world who want to work. I am not fond of hippies, long-hairs, dope fiends or alcoholics. I suggest each and every person in a supervisory category (from driller up to me) eliminate these people.”
  • “Anyone who lets their hair grow below their ears to where I can’t see their ears means they don’t wash. If they don’t wash, they stink, and if they stink, I don’t want the son-of-a-bitch around me.”
  • “Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you sons-of-bitches.”

For more of Tiger Mike’s amazing memos to his employees, click here. After reading these, you can congratulate yourself that you are a much better manager of your employees. If not, then you better put an employment lawyer on speed dial!

Required Employee Posters

Discrimination, Employee Rights, Forms and Policies,

For this week’s Friday Form, I thought I would provide you with the links for many of the employee rights notices that you as an employer should have posted in your workplace.

Most of the necessary posters are available free from the agencies that require them, so don’t bother paying money to a commercial vendor for them. The posters change too often to make that a good deal.

Here is where you can find explanations and instructions for downloading almost all the posters required by federal law.

Here is where you can find almost all the posters required of Texas employers in addition to the federal posters.

Failure to post the required notices for your employees to see can cost you as much as $100 per poster per worksite if anyone spots or reports your violation. It is so easy to post these things that there is really no reason not to do so.

Discrimination Complaints to EEOC Increase

Discrimination

Here’s a scary little tidbit for employers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which assists employees in bringing claims for discrimination against their employers, have announced that filings with the EEOC for discrimination jumped 9% in fiscal year 2007. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, they jumped another 21% from the previous year’s numbers for the same quarter.

Are employers suddenly discriminating that much more? Are employees more aware of their rights? Is the terrible economy driving more unemployed workers to sue their former companies? Continue reading Discrimination Complaints to EEOC Increase →

Employee Resignation Form

Documentation, Forms and Policies, Termination

I’m thinking of putting a form or policy online each Friday to help you as a Texas employer. Let me know what you think of that idea by leaving a comment.

Last Friday I posted a written warning form that you can adapt for your Texas business. This week I decided that I would post a written employee resignation form.

It is so important that you get your resigning employees to sign a written resignation. Continue reading Employee Resignation Form →

Genetic Information Now Protected By Law

Discrimination, Medical

In June 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The law prohibits discrimination based on genetic information about employees and applicants, their dependants, and any relatives out to the fourth-degree, such as great-grandparents. GINA stops employers from requesting, requiring or purchasing genetic information about an employee or his family members. The law goes into effect for employers beginning in November 2009.

Although many people have questioned why we needed a law when no one recognized that genetic discrimination was a problem, the federal government seemed to think that the law was necessary to allow genetic testing to begin to be used to its full potential in fighting disease. In fact, the law passed with only one “no” vote in the House and unanimously in the Senate.

How do you as an employer need to respond to GINA? Continue reading Genetic Information Now Protected By Law →

Minimum Wage Increase Reminder

Compensation

Remember that the minimum wage increases by $.70 per hour again on July 24, 2008.

If you are paying less than $6.55 to almost any worker (except waitstaff that receives part of their income from tips), you will need to raise his/her hourly rate to $6.55 per hour for every hour beginning with those worked after 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, July 24.

If you want to find out more about whether you are responsible as an employer for paying your workers the minimum wage, check out the Department of Labor’s explanatory information at https://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/minimumwage.htm.

The minimum wage will go up again on July 24, 2009, to $7.25 per hour. There are no increases scheduled after that date.

Written Warning Form

Documentation

One of the most frequent questions I receive from clients concerns how to “write up” an employee for a disciplinary violation. Written warnings are so important if there is ever a dispute about unemployment or discrimination. It is very difficult to defend your business on the basis of an employee’s poor performance or violation of the rules if you don’t have anything in writing to support your defense.

Written warnings also serve as a clear reminder to the employee that his/her behavior is unacceptable and outlines the necessary steps to improvement. Many employees won’t take your verbal corrections very seriously, but almost all employees pay attention when they receive a written warning.

So I’m providing you with a simple written warning form that you can use in your business.  Continue reading Written Warning Form →