Arizona Employment Legal Questions

This is a very interesting question, and I'm afraid you're not going to like the answer.  The fact that AZ has passed its own law allowing the medical use of marijuana does not make the drug "legal."  Federal law still prohibits the possession and use of marijuana, and employers remain entitled to prohibit the use, possession, etc. under their "drug free workplace" policies.  Neither federal law nor employer "drug free workplace" policies contain any exception for legal "medical" marijuana use.  Therefore, though you are allowed to use the drug under AZ law, you can still be violating federal law AND your employer's "drug free workplace" policy.... Read More

Unless your employer has independent evidence that you committed the alleged crime (for example, a witness), then there may be a state law that makes it illegal to terminate you based strictly on an arrest record.  The state law, if it exists, may apply only to employers of a certain size, such as 15 employees.  If there is no such law in your state, the EEOC has recently began to accept charges that are based on a disparate impact theory for race discrimination.  This means that because statistics show that a higher percent of blacks are arrested compared to whites, then using an arrest has a disparate impact on black employees thereby creating a  race discrimination case. You should speak to an attorney about this  ... Read More

Your employer is violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by falsifying your time records (marking you out for lunch when you are still working) and not paying you for the time you are working through your lunch. When an employer violates the FLSA it can be sued in federal court for twice the amount of the wages that were unpaid, and the time limit goes back three years from the date of the lawsuit. The employer will also be required to pay your attorney fees. You should contact an Arizona employment lawyer and tell him about it. You also can contact the US Department of Labor, Wage Hour Administration. However, I recommend contacting a private employment law attorney first.    Michael Caldwell 404-979-3150... Read More

Your case depends on what exactly the statement says, the questions asked, and your answers.  It would need to be read as whole along with the instructions you were given.  Present the statement to an attorney to review and he./she can give you a better idea as to what to do next, including whether the non-disclosure statement has any legal effect... Read More

A hostile work environment is an environment in which an individual is subjected to behavior by his superiors, peers, or others that is intimidating, belittling, threatening, oppressive, or otherwise behavior that is offensive. Creating or tolerating a hostile working environment is conduct that may be (but is not always) unlawful discrimination. Contrary to popular belief, it is not unlawful merely to subject an employee to a "hostile work environment."  First, the law doesn't protect employees' rights to a pleasant working environment. To make the hostile work environment one for which the law provides a remedy the individual must be able to show that the person(s) perpetrating the actions that create the hostile environment are somehow motivated to do so because of the employee's race, color, creed, religion, gender, national origin, age (if the person is at least 40), disability, status as a member of the armed forces of the US or as a U.S. veteran, or because the individual exercised a right protected under federal law or the Constitution. The behavior becomes unlawfully discriminatory if it is motivated by the victim's possession (or lack of) one of these protected characteristics. If, for example, an individual is an oppressive SOB to every employee, then the hostile work environment he is creating is not illegal sex harassment since the perpetrator treats people of both genders in the same manner. S/he is not discriminating unlawfully. Even bad behavior based on one of the protected characteristics of the victim referenced above does not rise to the level of unlawful discrimination unless it is either: (1) so frequent or widespread in the workplace that it becomes "pervasive" -- like the air you breathe in the workplace; or (2) is such a serious act that it unreasonably interferes with the victim's ability to perform his/her job duties. An example of the latter would be a sexual assault and battery. The steps toward resolution are (1) Find out if your employer has a policy regarding unlawful harassment; (2) If it does have such a policy, follow the policy to the letter. This usually requires that you tell someone in management about it and ask for them to stop it. Follow up with them to see what they have done; and (3) if your employer has no policy covering unlawful harassment, or if it has a policy but management fails to follow the policy, go to the EEOC not later than180 days after the most recent act of unlawful harassment, and file a charge of discrimination against your employer.   Remember to make a record of what the harasser said or did to you, the dates, the places where it occurred, and the persons who witnessed each event, the date you complained to your employer about it, the employer official to whom you brought your complaint, and the action that the employer took (if any). These are important for the EEOC charge. Oh, and make sure you consult a local employment lawyer before going to the EEOC. You are not required to have a lawyer to file a charge of discrimination, but it sure helps. Michael Caldwell 404-979-3150 ... Read More