The term “hostile work environment” is frequently heard but seldom understood, thanks to its misuse on sitcoms like The Office . In Delaware, for example, many employees have questions about just what constitutes a hostile work environment. Does it refer to any rude or bullying boss, or
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Employees in Maine and elsewhere in the country are entitled to overtime pay when they work more than 50 hours a week. Except in some very specific circumstances, employers may not grant “comp time” instead of overtime pay to hourly workers. “Comp time,” for those
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It is illegal for children under 12 to work in any capacity in Indiana and elsewhere in the U.S. That includes agricultural labor. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal law, prohibits child labor. As an investigation has uncovered, however, children as young as
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No law requires Arizona employers to offer their employees lunch breaks. They may, on the other hand, require their workers to clock out for unpaid half-hour or hour-long meal breaks during their shifts in order to save payroll dollars. Employees in Arizona are often surprised to discover
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Police stations and fire stations in Kansas are open 365 days a year, regardless of holidays. So are most convenience stores, gas stations, and restaurants. These are the kinds of operations that are open by necessity. Other businesses are open year-around by choice. Some malls and other
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Jon’s boss is a jerk who micro-manages, yells, and throws things. She verbally abuses workers of both sexes and of all ages, races, colors, religions, and national origins. Is she creating a “hostile work environment?” Betty’s boss has had it in for her ever since
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Child labor is not just happening in the sweatshops of Asia. It is occurring right in the U.S., in the farm fields of Virginia and other states across the country. Child labor is illegal in the U.S. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), no child
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The Human Resources profession recommends that every employer give his or her employees a half-hour unpaid meal break and two 10- to 15-minute paid breaks during the workday. However, no federal law mandates that employers must offer meal breaks for general industry workers. Among the
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Whether it is Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, or a “federal holiday,” any general industry may be open and may schedule workers to come in on those holidays. Employers are not required to give workers paid holidays off. This applies not only in Minnesota but nationwide. There is
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If an Idaho employer loses a case in which he or she has been charged with allowing or creating a “hostile work environment,” it can be very costly. In two cases that went before the EEOC recently, for example, the companies involved had to pay out more than $1
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Tim is an employee in an Missouri commercial bakery. His employer pays him every two weeks. During the first week of the payroll period, Tim worked for 50 hours. To avoid paying overtime, his employer wanted to have him work just 25 hours the following week and take 15
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Children as young as six years old are working in the farm fields of Wisconsin and elsewhere in the U.S. A team of graduate students recently conducted an undercover investigation that revealed regular violations of the child labor laws. Children, some of them age six, were regularly
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Mississippi employers may legally require their employees to work 8, 10, or 16 hours a day without a lunch break. There are 19 states in the U.S. that mandate meal breaks for most employees. Mississippi, however, is not one of them. There is no federal protection either.
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As long as it can be done without “undue hardship,” employers in Arizona and elsewhere in the U.S. must allow for the free expression of an employee’s religion. This means, among other things, that employers are required by federal law to allow Muslim employees to take prayer
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Employers in Michigan and throughout the rest of the U.S. are asking why the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 allows workers to take what is called “intermittent, unscheduled” leave. One of the most hotly-debated features of the FMLA is that there is nothing in the
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Muslim employees in Nebraska and all other states in the U.S. must be allowed to take prayer breaks during the workday. It is federal law. According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, anything else would be discrimination in the workplace and therefore illegal.
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The phrases “reasonable accommodations” and “sincerely held religious beliefs” are two that Arizona employees would be well-advised to know and understand. That is because the federal government requires that employers must make “reasonable accommodations” to workers’ “sincerely held religious beliefs” in the workplace. Typical “reasonable
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There are many company disciplinary policies that may not have grown out of state or federal labor laws. A good number of them, however, are considered “best practices” and have been developed by the top Human Resources professionals. Policies like these have become the standard among large
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New regulations under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for 2009 require workers to follow their companies’ standard reporting procedures when they take unscheduled, intermittent time off under the act. The change in the regulations follow the U.S. Labor Department’s release of a 182-page review
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The state of Colorado does not require that employees get benefits for short-term disabilities. Colorado is not unusual in this respect. Only five states have passed legislation mandating that employers pay short term Disability to their workers. Those five are New York, Rhode Island, California, Hawaii, and
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Federal law demands it: many employers throughout the U.S. must allow their employees of the Islamic faith to take prayer breaks. Muslims, in turn, are required by their religion to pray, facing east, five specific times during the day. Many employers have answered this spiritual
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