Florida Employment Legal Questions

It seems you may well be restricted in performance of your job if you are required to work under circumstances or a position that is affecting your health and well being. You should certainly document with management or with human resources exactly what the problem is, and request transfer to another position that is not adverse to your health. Your health should come first. If in fact you have a disability or illness which is affected as to the assignment you are given, and the employer refuses to 'accommodate' you by switching you to another safe and healthful position, you may have a claim, providing you could prove you are being singled out and that other employees who have had health issues are treated differently than you.... Read More

Discrimination in the legal sense relates to treatment different than others due to protected classifications, but, your description mentions nothing about any protected classification or alleged or perceived treatment because of your protected group.  Thus, alone on the facts, while you may be treated differently, no laws seems to apply to his situation.  An employer may decide as an employee at will to not offer you opporunites for many lawful factual or financial reasons.   Thus again, discrimination requires some violation of protected rights, but here these facts do not fit with in any unlawful discrimination.  ... Read More

In Florida, No laws require a private employer to provide prior written or oral notice prior to termination, lay offs, suspensions, nor requirement to give any prior warning.  In some circumstances, a civil claim for breach of contract if the employer did not follow the company employee guidebook and procedures may be argued as a breach of contract, but, Florida has not judicially nor by statute provide such a law.  MLF... Read More

Many employers have such a policy that if time is missed, they go to the pto bank, using any time available.  Its not against any statutes, althoug depending upon the company policy, if none, could be a breach of contract.  But if there was sick time available, this would seem to be a mistake or some other internal problem of the company.  As long as he can use sick time for vacation it would be a wash, but if not, you should get with the company HR or management and get things in writing, ask for the employee handbook, the PTO plan etc.  ... Read More

 There may be a salary basis violation and other wage violations as well as retaliation that may be actionable under the fair labor standards act. I simply need more faxed to know as to whether you were ever penalized her had your salary reduced and whether you did anything which can be considered misconduct which would support the reasons for termination. There simply not enough facts here to really be certain  contact a lawyer who handles employment law and go over the fax in more detail. I think this is something you should look into as to whether you have been paid correctly or whether there is been any pay violation retaliation that would be protected under the statutes ... Read More

If you are on narcotic pain medication there could be  safety reason.  but, the employer has an obligation to  attempt to accomodate any work restrictions from a disability, but not necessarily from the surgery/injury.  You should avail yourself to FMLA and any std if available.  You have potentially 12 weeks of FMLA coverage.  But, if you could do the job and it could be accomoidated and the fact that you take pain medication should not preclude employment.  All kinds of people take pain medication.  But if you are on percoset or a drug which causes dizziness or makes you sleepy, the employer may have a justified reasons to keep you out of work, not from advil or other non-narcotic pain meds.  mlf  ... Read More

Yopu probably will not be able to sue the emnployer.  Florida is an at-will state which means the employer can let you go for any reason so long as it not discriminatory in nature (i.e. based on sex, race, age, national origin, disability, religion).  The exception is if you have a written contract for a specific time period.  IF you have such a contract, then termination can only be in accordance with the terms of the written contract... Read More

You should be prepared to show proof that you worked the hours in question and have your pay checks ready to demonstrate that you did not receive your full pay for all the hours that you worked.  At trial, the burden will probably be on the employer to prove that you didn't work the hours that you claim if you testify that you did work the hours.  The Department of Labor Regulations place the burden on the employer to keep records demonstrating the time that you worked, so the employer may have a difficult time disproving your testimony.  ... Read More

I can't answer your question without some additional information.  First, do you have a written employment contract?  Second, is there a document in which the employer indicates why the salary is being decreased and that you are to be paid back the amount that was withheld?  ... Read More

Mr. Whitener Overtime entitlement is controlled by a federal statute called the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") whcih essentially requires that overtime compensation be paid after a 40 hour workweek.  However, the FLSA has a multiple of exemptions from overtime.  Without knowing the exact facts, you could be within one of these exemptions.  Specifically the "Administrative Exemption" may apply to your job and prevent you from getting overtime but whether the exemption applies is highly fact specific and requires an analysis of your exact facts against the elements required by the exemption.  If the exemption does not apply then you can pursue an overtime claim for at least for the past two years but in any event no more than the past three years. In Florida, non-competes are enforceable but it is necessary to review the non-compete to determine its appicability.  If you did not have a written employment contract, then in most instances the non-compete is enforceable unless the employer has breached an important term of your employment relationship.  As to the sale of products after the expiration date, that is an issue for the governmental authorities and you could bring it to the attention of the appropriate governmental agency.    Jay Levy          ... Read More

You can sue your employer for unpaid wages even if his ability to maintain consistent payroll is jeopardized by his cash flow problem. The biggest challenge here is establishing what payments he owes you if you do not have a written contract establishing your hourly wage, how often you get paid, and/or if you are salaried. A court would be able to infer that you were not performing a charitable service or gifting him with your labor. But establishing what you were to be paid and how many hours you put in will have to be established through some other piece of evidence. Do you have time cards or something that indicates how much you are paid per hour? Are you paid per project or by some other unit? Do you have a letter or another document indicating this? The word of a fellow employee may not be sufficient, especially if an argument can be made that the fellow employee has seniority or worked more or less hours or worked on different projects. Any distinction that this fellow employee has will make it difficult for you to argue what you should have been paid. The other related issue is establishing a time period. Proof of how often you were to be paid and when was your last pay period is important to establish how much you were owed when you left for new employment. Without some form of documentation, you may not recover all that you are owed. I'd recommend contacting an attorney to review your options. In the future, although it can be difficult to shift the bargaining power the employer inherently possesses, Id recommend requesting a written agreement even if the terms are subject to change and asking for a signed modified agreement if the terms do change based on the employer's cash flow or other circumstances. Another option (which you may want to combine with the aforementioned) is to create a "paystub"/"receipt" each time you are paid so you can note the date and the amount of pay to establish a record. ... Read More

The first question that needs to be answered is does the company that you work for have a manual that was given to all employees regarding harassment and protocols to follow when there are issues within the office. If there was a manual, then the question becomes were those steps followed by the management team or not. If there was not a manual, then the question becomes did this type of behavior occur previously or not and were there "notices" given to the office management. My best recommendation would be to seek an attorney in your area that specializes in employer/employee issues to get the best opinion of whether there is something that can be done further regarding this matter.... Read More