BLAW Quiz 2/Final

FSLA TN minimum wage

$7.25

Neil, a pharmacist, was hired by Walgreens where more than one pharmacist is on duty during all hours of operation. Neil informs Walgreens that he refuses on religious grounds to participate in distributing contraceptives or answering any customer inquiries about contraceptives. 1) what law applies? 2) what is the employer's legal obligation? 3) where would Neil file a complaint and how long would he have to do it?

1) title VII 2) tell someone else to handle those inquiries as long as someone else is available. If no-one else is available but it causes undue burden. 3) EEOC and 180 days

Maggie is pregnant and has severe morning sickness. Her employer tells her that she has a choice; she can either take off work and be written up (and the days will not count against her 12 weeks FMLA time) or she can take off work and it will count against her 12 FMLA. In other words, if she misses 7 days for morning sickness and doctor appointments, she is only allowed 11 weeks off after the birth of the child, but she will not be written up. -Determine which action of the company was legal and/or illegal and why?

1)Illegal because you can't give choices on FMLA and you can't write people up for using FMLA

Mary Beth is a nurse for a doctors office and is diagnosed with diabetes. Over the course of about on yeast, she incurs a total of 20 days of absences in a 12- month period. 12 of those absences are due to diabetes and the remaining 7 are due to sore throat, common cold, and upset stomach. The employer has a strict enforces policy which states that an employee is terminated when they accrue 7 absences in a rolling 12-month period. When Mary Beth had 7 absences, the employer terminated her employment. 1) determine which action of the company was legal and/or illegal and why? 2) Based on this case, what would you train your managers to do?

1)It is legal because there are 7 non-FMLA absences 2)Train them to ask the employees if it is an FMLA or non-FMLA related absence

Steps

1)Plaintiff must prove prima facie case 2)Defendant proves not discrimination by business necessity or BFOQ 3)Plaintiff turn to prove that defendant business necessity defense is pre textual and not true

EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

Federal agency that oversees discrimination in the workplace

American with disability act

Federal law 15 or more employees Equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) enforces 180 days

Fair Standards Labor Act

Federal law Private employees with $500,000 gross sales per year have to follow this law An employee has 2 years to file a claim with the US department of labor Cannot go straight to court Establishes minimum wage Establishes overtime threshold Record-keeping requirements

FMLA

File a claim with U.S. department of labor

Undue burden- religious v. disability

Religious-undue burden means "more than de minimus or slight" cost or burden Note that this is a lower standard that the ADA, in which undue burden means "significant difficulty or expense"

Great clips hired Patty to cut hair. Great clips sets the prices and provides software for recipes and billing. Although Patty may give her preference when she a work, ultimately Great clips creates her work schedule. Patty must remain on the job site serving customers when she doesn't have to do a service. All profits of products sold go to great clips. Issue: Analyze whether Patty is an independent contractor or employee. Rule: Application: apply the rule to every fact which supports your conculsion Conclusion: 2) Patty trips over cords while carrying chemicals and spills it on Karen, also breaking her leg in the process. a) if she is an independent contractor, who does Karen sue, who pays for Patty's bills and why? b) if she is an employee, who does Karen sue, who pays Patty's bills, and why?

Rule: Control Application: Great clips makes her schedule, provides her software for recipes and billing, all profits of products sold go to great clips, and she is required to stay on site even if she does not have any services booked. Conclusion: because Great clips has significant control over Patty, Patty is an employee. 2) a) Karen will sue Patty because she is an independent contractor and not an employee, and Patty will have to pay her own bills because she is not an employee. b) Karen will sue the company because patty is an employee not an independent contractor, and the company will pay Patty's bills.

Tammy works at Jane's trampoline and bootcamp fitness as an instructor. Tammy is required to go through 2 weeks of training by the company for each type of class she teaches. Tampa must send in a video sample class before she can teach classes. After training, Jane requires that Tammy teach at least 4 classes per week and at least one weekend class per month. Tammy instrusts Jane which days she can work but Jane sets the class schedule and might require Tammy to fill in on other days. Tammy is paid $30 per class and does not have any benefits such as insurance. All customers pay monthly fees to the company. 1) Jane classified Tammy as an independent contractor. Issue: Analyze whether Tammy is an independent contractor or employee. Rule: Application: apply the rule to every fact which supports your conclusion Conclusion: 2) While teaching, a trampoline collapses and Tammy needs surgery. Who has to pay for surgery?

Rule: Control Application: Tammy does not make her own schedule, she has to teach the class exactly how the owner says, she has a set amount of days she is required to work, and the customers pay the company. Conclusion: For all these reasons, the company has almost complete control over Jane's work duties, therefore making her an employee and not an independent contractor. 2) The company because we stated that she is an employee, that means the company is responsible for covering employees.

Monitoring software (Multi-purpose employee monitoring software)

Sends out weekly reports collating the browsing information of every employee to their managers' official email IDs and also to their individual IDs

Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act

Statue that resets time in which an employee may file EPA lawsuit Each paycheck resets the beginning point for statue of limitations purposes

U.S department of labor

The agency that deals with complaints filed by employees who feel that their rights protected by fair labor laws have been violated

Undue burden/hardship

action requiring significant difficulty or expense for employer to make reasonable accommodations

Employment-at-will

all states are "at will" but many states have exceptions such as Public policy, implied contracts, covenant of good faith Tennessee does not Unless the company is breaking the law, you do not have a case against them if they fire you/decide not to hire you

After job offer

an employer cannot ask about physical or medial conditions or any existence of a disability until after it extends a job offer

Discrimination

being treated differently than others. Legal in TN so long as the employee is not being treated differently because of age, race, sex, religion, national affiliation, or union

Independent contractor

pays self-employment income taxes, social security, medicare No insurance, vacation, retirement

Equal pay act

prohibits unequal pay for men and women doing substantially similar work Problem:too ambiguous (very difficult to prove) a lawsuit must be filed in court within 2 years

What is a disability

something that substantially limits major life activities

Military FMLA

spouse, son, daughter, or parent deploy covered up to 26 weeks

Rule: Control

the more control you exert over this person, the more likely they are an employee

Unauthorized work

when the employer knows or has reason to believe the employee worked overtime, then employee must be paid

Primary job duty of management to company

1) Have the authority to hire/fire other employees 2) have his/her recommendations to hiring, firing, promotions, or other change of status giving particular weight

Lisa has returned to work from back surgery. Now she must begin physical therapy for 4 hours every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. -What law applies? -What employees are obligated to follow this law? -What is required for an employee to be eligible? -Where would Lisa file a claim? -How long would Lisa have to file a claim? -What is the employer's legal obligation? -You find out that your supervisor has been writing her up for these absences. What do you do?

-FMLA -50 employees within a 75 mile radius -must have worked a minimum of 1250 hours prior to request -She would file a claim with U.S. Department of labor -2 years -Legal obligation to let her keep her job and to give her the leave - Void the absences and have Lisa sign an agreement saying that the situation has been rectified

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

-Federal law -protects against RRSN: -Race, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin.discrimination 15 or more employees -Must be filed with the equal employment opportunity commission within 180 days of a violation

Frank mentions over lunch with a few managers and his supervisor Susan that he is tired from all the driving he's been doing taking his son to the doctor. Susan does not ask frank any further questions even though she knows frank has missed a lot of work due to his sons medical condition. A fee weeks later, Susan quits, and frank's new supervisor writes frank up for excessive absences and demotes frank to a part-time schedule. -Determine which action of the company was legal and/or illegal and why? -What should Susan have done under the law?

-It was illegal to write up the absences and be demoted -Susan has a legal obligation to tell him he was covered under FMLA

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)/military leave

1 or more employees Must reemploy Forbids discrimination in hiring, retention etc Weaknesses: Less than 30 days Not cover national guard mobilized for natural disasters

After a month of being off work for surgery, Lisa returns with documentation from her doctor stating that she has permanent restrictions of no lifting over 20 lbs. Lisa is an administrative assistant which involves typing. However, Lisa must occasionally life the boxes of copy paper when the copier needs additional paper. Lisa typically has to life the boxes once a day and these boxes weigh 50 lbs. 1) What law applies? 2) Where would an employee file a claim? 3) How long would and employee have to file a claim? 4) What are the employer's legal obligations? 5) Sally comes to you, the owner, complaining that Lisa never picks up the box of paper and makes her do it all the time and thinks she is lazy. Sally is tired of doing it and refuses to do it anymore. What do you do?

1) ADA 2) 3) 180 days 4) To give reasonable accommodations 5) Tell her to 'mind her business' and not give any legal answer or any answer that would allude to Lisa's back injury.

Bob, a sales associate, is on leave for hip surgery. While he's off work you discover in a routine audit that bob was entering false sales to boost his commissions, essentially havinng items shipped to friends and returned once he was paid his commissions. The scam was going on for several months before his surgery, and he received a lot of money in unearned commissions. 1) What if, in the past you had two employees who committed fraud. You fired one but the other was a really good employee, so you kept the employee. What do you do with Bob? 2) What if you always fired employees for doing this. What will you do with Bob?

1) Can be considered bad timing because they employees has inconstancy in the past and Bob can argue that it was based off FMLA. 2)Since there was constancy, it is easier to say that it is not related to FMLA.

Retaliation case: Stan Babbs is a customer service representative with Johnson building supply. In April of 2021 Stan received a disciplinary write up for being late for work on five occasions and being continuously argumentative with his supervisor. Stan was warned that if it happened again he would be fired. Stan continued to be argumentative with his supervisor and he was late several times in May, Junes, July, August, September, and October, However, Stan was not fired or written up for those instances. On November 19, 2021 Stan asked for two days to take his wife for outpatient surgery. Johnson building supply terminated Stan;s employment two days later on November 21 because of "unresolved, previously disciplinary issues" 1) If you represented Stan in a claim, what would you allege? Cite the law. 2) if you represented Johnson building supply, what should the company have done differently?

1) I would allege that they retaliated against Stan for using FMLA. 2) The company should have fired him way sooner.

Jane was to start her maternity leave beginning in September. As her due date approached a new payroll system for which have was responsible got delayed to November. Janes supervisor informer her that she needed to work from home and gave her a laptop. The work began the day she got home from the hospital and Jane worked nearly full time during her leave. Dance received her regular salary. After her leave and successfully completing the payroll project, Jane was to be reassigned to a risk manager position. -Determine which action of the company was legal and/or illegal and why?

1) Illegal because they did not return her to her job, they told her to work during her maternity leave

Joe works on a production line where he has to lift over 10 lbs a majority of the day and over 50 lbs once in a while 1)Joe has an injury and can no longer lift over 10 lbs ever again. 2)Joe has an injury and can no longer lift over 50 lbs ever again. What can the employer do?

1) Joe can no longer complete 90% of his job duties, so the employer would fire/lay off Joe. 2) Joe can still perform essential functions of his job since the 50 lbs is every once in a while. The employer must provide reasonable accommodations, which would be to find another employee to life the 50 lbs.

Overtime exemption

1) Must meet weekly salary threshold 2) Primary job duty of management of the company

Jane works 8 to 4 pm. She delivers flowers, answers the phone, and waits on customers. She is paid $15 an hour. 1) Is Jane an independent contractor? 2) What happens if Jane gets in a wreck with Joe?

1) No, she is an employee 2) Joe will sue the company

Edward is a server at Red Robin which has a strict no tattoo grooming policy for all servers. Edward practices the Kemetic religious, based on Egyptian faith. During a religious ceremony he received small tattoos encircling his wrist, written in th e coptic language, which expresses his servitude to Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun. 1) what law applies? 2) What is the employee's legal obligation? 3) Edward explains that it is a sin to cover them intentionally because doing so would signify a rejection of Ra. Now what?

1) Title VII 2) tell him to wear long sleeves 3) make a judgement call on whether it was considered an undue burden or not

Danielle, the owner of a daycare center, knows that one other teachers has diabetes and that she once had an insulin reaction at work when she skipped lunch. When Danielle sees the teacher eat a piece of cake at a child's birthday party, she becomes concerned that the teacher may have an insulin reaction. The owner tells the employee in front of everyone that she cannot eat sugar while she is at work anymore and she must only eat healthy lunches. 1) What advice would you give to Danielle about action? 2) How should have Danielle handled this issue?

1) To tell her in private, 2) Tell her, in private, that you need a note stating that she has her diabetes under control.

Jane works delivering flowers. Jane is allowed to come in the store whenever she wants. She can deliver on any route she wants, but the flowers must be delivered by 5 pm. She uses her own car and hours. 1) Is she an independent contractor? 2) What happens If Jane gets in a wreck with Joe

1) Yes 2) Jane will pay her own medical bills and Joe will sue Jane

Wendy, an administrative assistant with pediatrics 2000 requests not to attend a company party planned for that month because, as her employer knew, it would violate her religious practices as a Jehovah's Witness to attend a holiday party. Pediatrics 2000 had allowed other employees to decline to attend the party, which was scheduled on a weekend 1)What law applies? 2)What is the employer's legal obligation? 3)The company's owner and founder texted the employee, "This is your last day of employment. We can't tolerate religious privileges from anyone". Where would the employee file a lawsuit and how long does she have to do so?

1) title VII 2) To let her not go 3) EEOC and 180 days

2 ways to get workers comp

Injury: Arise out of:performing job duties In the course of employment: clocked in or in the parking lot

Pregnancy worker fairness act (PWFA)

15 or more employees EEOC 180 days Reasonable accommodations unless it creates an undue burden

Jury duty

5 employees: must pay for jury duty (minus what employees receive from gov)

Age discrimination in employment act (ADEA) of 1967

ADEA protects people who are 40 years of age or older 20 or more employees must be filed with EEOC within 180 days of violation

Medical information

All medical information must be kept. separate from a personnel file and is confidential an employer cannot discuss medical information

ADA

Americans with Disabilities Act cannot discriminate against those who are disabled or those who have disabled chilren

Perceived disability

An employee who is viewed by the employer to have some form of a disability or impairment, even though they do not fall within the legal definition of having a disability.

Background check

Applicant must agree to a background check Cannot be on application and must be sent afterwards

Administrative Exemption Job duties

Primary duty: -office work directly related to management or general business -exercise of discretion and independent judgement with respect to matters of significance

Bulls Gun Shooting and Range company requires natural hearing due to firing a gun. Plaintiff wears hearing aid. (ADA) Plaintiff's prima facie case: 1.Protected class- ADA. 2.Adverse Job - did not get job. Now Employer's turn to prove Business Necessity- safety reasons, ear drum may explode

Balls gun won because it is not discriminatory

Whistleblowing

Being fired, disciplines for blowing the whistle on the employer This means you may can get a case Federal and state laws are all different

BFOQ

Business necessity

Absenteeism/tardy

Deliberate disregard of a weren't attendance policy

day care center will not hire people over 5'4" because they think it will scare the children.

Does Joe who is 5'9" have a claim under disparate impact? -Yes because that "qualification" eliminates 80% of applicants

Right to privacy

Employees do not have a right to privacy over company issued tech. Employees of private companies have almost no exception of privacy when using company-issued equipment. Should require employees to sign a consent to such monitoring

Sexual harassment

Employer cannot require employees to sign mandatory arbitration clauses for sexual harassment cases

Cannot retaliate

Employers cannot retaliate against employees for exercising rights they have under all of the following employment laws

Another requirement

Essential functions of the job -perform about 90-95% of job duties Reasonable accommodations

Retaliation

Every employment law whether state or federal has a retaliation clause Most claims are related to that

FLSA overtime exceptions

Exceptions to minimum wage and overtime: -Executive, administrative, and professional employees -Outside sales employees -Some skilled computer professionals -Seasonal amusement and recreational employees -Casual babysitters and companions of elderly Exceptions to overtime: -Some commissioned employees of retail and service business -Salespeople employed by auto, truck, trailer, farm implement, boat or aircraft dealers/manufacturers -Live-in domestics -Movie theater employees

Intermittent leave

FMLA leave may be taken in periods of whole weeks, single days, or hours

FMLA

Family and Medical Leave Act

Work comp strict liability

Fault does not matter Ex: employee runs red light-will be covered

Professional exemption job duties

Primary duty: -Work requiring advanced knowledge with the consistent exercise of judgement and decision making -Advance knowledge must be in a field of science or learning and must be learning by a prolonged course of intellectual instruction

Job Performance

Generally reluctant to permit employees inability to perform a job to defeat his claim for unemployment Often hard to prove recurrence to show an intentional or substantial disregard def Kile v. Troughbor

insubordination

Gray area Davis v. Young: failed to follow supervisors instructions on 3 occasions (did not get unemployment) Miller v. Bible: employees left work early although employee said he couldn't (he got unemployment)

TN whistleblower

Hard to prove because you have to prove it was the only reason you were fired

A high school has an opening for a vice-principal in charge of discipline and must be 6' tall. The school argues that tall people are seen as power figures. Plaintiff's prima facie case: 1.Protected class- Female, Sex 2. 2. Adverse Job - did not get job. Now Employer's turn to prove Business Necessity- NO short females can be powerful

High school lost because it is discriminatory

Mandatory time records

If the employer has lost, destroyed, or failed to keep time in records, this violates the FLSA

All medical information must be kept separate from a personnel file

In other words, you cannot tell other employees about why you are making accommodations

Quit/constructive discharge

Just because an employee quits does not mean they cannot have a discrimination claim

Neutral References

Most employers had adopted the policy of providing neutral references: dates of employment, salary, and title

Requested accommodations

Must provide accommodations such as providing places to pray, specific holidays off, etc

can a worker voluntarily waive employee status and choose to be classified as and independent contractor?

No

Pregnancy discrimination (under title VII)

Not allowed to discriminate against anyone who is pregnant

Non-compete clauses

Not going to be employed by a competitor within a certain amount of time

OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration 8 or more employees OSHA investigates and has OSHRC to hear case OSHA section 5(a): employees shall maintain a safe workplace

Salary threshold

Old: $684 per week or $35,568 per year New: $844 per week In 2025 it will be $1,128 per week

Independent contractor

One who works for, and receives payment from, an employer but whose working conditions and methods are not controlled by the employer. An independent contractor is not an employee but may be an agent.

Undue burden religion example

Patricia works at a steel mill and is pentecostal and asks to wear a skirt for religious reasons. This is not allowed, but it is not discrimination because it is a safety hazard and therefor will cause undue burden.

Libel(writing) /Slander (speech) within an employment setting

Truth? Publication-no Cannot sue

Libel/Slander outside employment setting

Truth? Publication-yes Can sue

Disparate impact

Unintentional discrimination

TN discrimination laws

Used if under the required employee number 1) Tennessee pregnant workers fairness workers act(same as federal law) 2) Tennessee human rights act (THRA) covers: Race, religion, sex, national origin, and age 8 or more employees Tennessee human rights commission within 180 days 3) Tennessee disability act- 8 employees prohibits discriminating on the basis of physical, mental, and visual disability does not require reasonable accommodations

Prima facie case

What the plaintiff must prove to even start to have a discrimination case 1) member of protected class 2) adverse job action (not hired, fired, demoted, not promoted, etc)

Comp time

Work done over 40 hours accrues additional time off only government agencies can use comp time

Title VII Civil Rights Act of 1964 Religious accommodation in the workplace

You have a right to make a limited inquiry into the employee's claim that the oracle at issue is religious For example, verification through written materials or third-party-sites or books

Exception to minimum wage

Youth workers -Businesses may hire youth workers (under 20 yrs) and only pay them $4.25 during the first 90 calendar days Tipped workers -Must be paid minimum $2.13 and their total pay (base pay plus tips) must equal at least minimum wage

Negligent Hiring

failure on the part of an employer to exercise reasonable care in the selection of new employees which results in harm to an innocent third party In other words not running a background check

Two types of sexual harassment

hostile work environment: -Must be offensive to a reasonable person as well and the victim and it must be sever and persuasive quid pro quo: -One on one with somebody

Disparate treatment

intentional/obvious discrimination

Business necessity

legitimate/job-related purpose

Policy

manager or supervisor harassing employees: Sexual harassment case If you have a policy, you have stopped and reported it, the you are off the hook and they do not have a case

FMLA requirements

must work a minimum of 1250 hours during the 12 month period immediately prior to the FMLA request employer must have at least 50 or more employees within 75 miles with each other Must be filed within 2 years