Employment Legal Questions

The answer to this queston rests primarily on your position with the employer and your proper classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  I'm guessing that you are classified as an exempt employee and you're paid salary.  Truly exempt employees are not entitled to overtime pay.  BUT the queston is are you accurately classified as exempt?  You'd need to have a detailed conversation with an employment attorney about this.  Assuming you are misclassified, are you prepared to present this to your employer?  There may be repercussions. ... Read More

Probably you do not have a case. Unless you have a contract providing otherwise, an employer is free to terminate you for any reason it deems adequate. He cannot terminate you because of your race, color, religion, gender, etc., or because you made a discrimination claim under federal law. But apart from unlawful discrimination or retaliation, he is free to terminate you. Severance pay is not required regardless of the length of your service, unless you have a contract providing for it.  ... Read More

This depends upon your employer's rules. In Georgia, for instance, the employment relationship is "at will." (Tennessee's is probably the same.) That means an employer can fire a person for any reason or no reason - and the employee can quit for any reason, or no reason. The employer has the right to establish the rules of behavior for its workplace. As long as the employer does not enforce such rules or standards in an illegally-discriminatory way (i.e., this means to base the enforcement decision on your race, color, creed, religion, gender, age (if you're over 40, disability (if you're qualified for your job), status as a member of the armed forces oe veteran, or as retaliation for the exercise of federally protected rights, the employer is free to terminate you for any reason -unless you have a contract that limits the employer's right to do so.  ... Read More

I am not exactly sure what you mean by "decline to acknowledge", but your employer can require you to sign a performance evaluation and terminate you if you refused to do so. If there is anything in the performance evaluation that you disagree with, you should note that you disagree near your signature.  However, most large corporations perfomance evaluation forms note that signing the document is only acknowleging that you recieved the document which is fine.... Read More

There is nothing you can do in this situation if the employer does not want to do the right thing or be honest with you. Retaliation is unlawful only if you engaged in a "protected activity" which is an activity that the law says you have an absolute legal right to engage in. There are very few protected activities in this state.... Read More

There is not a legal claim simply because the employee feels s/he are in a hostile environment.  Harassment, including hostile enviroment harassment, is unlawful only if it is directed to the victim due to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability or age 40 or older. If it is not directed for one of those reasons, then it is not unlawful no matter how bad the conduct may be.... Read More

In Texas, an employer is not permitted to make deductions from wages (except for taxes and court-ordered child support) unless it has the written consent of the employee to do so.  That consent must be specific.  Further, even if the employer has the appropriate consent, its additional deductions cannot cause the employee to make less than minimum wage for any given week. If your employer did not have consent to make the deductions it made, you can file a wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission's Labor Law Department - you can find it and the forms on the Commission's website.  Caution: the law that governs this issue has no anti-retaliation provisions.  So if you are still employed with the subject employer and he/she/it gets mad because you filed the complaint, there is no protection for you if the employer terminates your employment. Good luck.... Read More

You need to speak with an employment attorney as soon as possible. You may have a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act depending on the circumstances of the background check. In addition, you may have a claim for OSHA retaliation. Our office handles these matters regularly for employees throughout Ohio. Feel free to call my office for a free consultation.   Ohio background check lawyer http://mcoffmanlegal.com/background-check-lawyer-fcra-columbus-ohio/... Read More

Sorry, but the best answer you're going to be able to get without sitting down with a lawyer is "maybe".  Here's why - non-compete agreements are disfavored in the law because, as you point out, they can keep people from making a living.  They also diminish competition in the market place for ideas and prices, ie we want people who can build a better or cheaper mousetrap to do so.  That said, the law will protect a business from employees stealing its secrets and using those secrets in the marketplace against it.  So the law says that if an employer has a protetable interest in trade secrets, it can enforce a non-compete against its former employees, but only to the extent that non-compete is narrowly draft to protect those interests and no more.  In my experience, employers often over-use non-competes or draft them too broadly, sometimes out of ignorance as to what the law will allow and sometimes in a deliberate attempt to elimiinate competition in their marketplace.  To know whether the agreement is enforceable, you will need to sit down with an attorney experienced in non-competes and discuss what trade secrets your employer might have that merit protection, whether or not you already knew those secret when you signed the document or whether the employer did not reveal those secrets to you until after you signed the document.  Assuming you identifiy protectable trade secrets, then you and the attorney must determine whether or not the non-compete is overbroad in time, geographic area, or scope of restricted activity.  For example if the employer only operates in a certain city or portion of the state, the law may not enforce a non-compete that purports to restrict the former employee's activities state-wide or nation-wide.  If the trade secret is time-sensitive (e.g. a price list that changes every 6 weeks), the law will not enforce a non-compete that is longer than neessary to protect that secret.  If the employer is the business of manufacturing a gadget that does a certain task and the former employee goes to work in a business that does that same task via software, the law may not enforce the non-compete because the employee's new employment does not directly compete with the old employer's activities.  Finally, if there is no protectable interest that can be identified, the law would strike down the entire non-compete. Look on this (lawyers.com) website for attorneys near you that practice in the area of non-compete agreements or look on the website for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization (TBLS.org) for attorneys that are board certified in labor and employment law. Good luck.... Read More

You are likely non-exempt meaning you should be entitled to be paid minimum wage and overtime for hours worked.  Your employer is entitled to take a tip credit against your hourly rate. without seeing the paystub and knowing more about your work, its difficult to advise you for certain. ... Read More

I'm not sure I understand your question, so if I don't answer it, please feel free to respond and clarify.  I assume you are talking about hourly employees who "punch in" on an electronic or mechanical time clock.  The beginning time for their payment for the day would start when they punch in.  So if an employee is supposed to begin work at 8:00 and doesn't clock in until 8:07, the time for which you are paying him doesn't begin until 8:07.  You should make sure that the employees are clocking in immediately when they do begin work and are not clocking in after they do so.  Payroll issues aside, you are free to terminate or discipline an employee who is late to work. I am unaware of any concept of "grace period" in the law.  However in certain industries and fact-specific situations, an employer is required to pay employees for the time it takes to put on and take off specialized personal protective equipment.  If such activities are part of your employees' day, then there is a much longer discussion involved.... Read More

With only rare exceptions, an employer must pay an employee at least minimum wage for all hours worked.  Unless an employee is specifically exempt from the requirement, he or she must also be paid 1.5 times his or her regular hourly rate for all hours worked over 40 in a given week.  If you believe you are not being paid correctly, you should either seek the advice of an experienced labor & employment lawyer (it may be the attorney can represent all of the employees who are not being paid correctly) or file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage & Hour Division.  There is an office in each major city in Texas with DFW sharing one in Arlington.... Read More

If you feel that you are owed unpaid wages, you can file a law suit with a local magistrate. You can also file a complaint with the PA department of labor, wage and hour division.  As to unpaid vacation time, whether you can get that depends on your employer's written policy concerning payment for accrued but unused vacation pay.  There is no law entitling you to this. ... Read More