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What I've Been Reading This Week


This week was certainly a mix of several different employment law matters, ranging from wage and hour developments, employee bonus pay, all the way to FMLA matters.  Needless to say, I think readers will find at least one of these articles relevant, although given that a few of these articles are rather short, I think they are all worth a quick read when you have a minute.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Trends in State & Local Wage and Hour Laws

Jeffrey Ruzal, Adriana Kosovych, and Judah Rosenblatt recently authored an article that identified recent trends in the area of state & local wage and hour laws.  Notably, this concise overview gives readers an idea of recent some recent developments on the minimum wage front (in California, Washington, D.C., and New York City, among other states and cities) as well how overtime pay is calculated (and when overtime pay actually kicks in) for employees in certain states.  This article is well worth a quick review for those looking for a brief overview of several wage and hour developments.


Employers: Beware of Including Promises to Pay Bonuses in Employee Handbooks

Many employers have bonus plans in place that stipulate how and when employees can earn the bonus.  Some employers choose to put this bonus plan in their employee handbooks which, as Kara Craig writes, can turn into a bad idea.  Using an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision from earlier this year, Boswell v. Panera Bread Company, Craig advises that while employers should put employee bonus plans in writing, they are likely better served leaving them out of employee handbooks.  Employee handbooks are typically intended to be used for ongoing policy guidance in regard to workplace policies and procedures.  Employee bonus plans, however, can often change (depending upon business circumstances) and therefore are likely to be updated or amended more frequently than an employee handbook.  One word of caution, as the Boswell case illustrates, promising to pay employees a bonus if XYZ happens and then attempting to renege on the arrangement can expose employers to a breach of contract claim.  Tread carefully, employers.


A Lack of FMLA Training Can Expose Employers to Major Liability

Perhaps I should have entitled this post the "What I've Been Reading This Week:  Instructive Cases Edition".  Jeff Nowak over at SHRM wrote an article a few months ago and advised employers that failing to train their management on FMLA matters could ultimately expose the employer to major liability in the form of double damages.  Nowak pointed to a case from Massachusetts, Boadi v. Center for Human Development, in which an employee was hospitalized and had her son call the supervisor, the supervisor's boss, and the supervisor's boss' boss to notify them of the absence.  Undeterred, the supervisor took the matter directly to the vice president of human resources and ultimately drafted a termination letter to terminate the employee.  A jury ultimately awarded the employee $150,000.00 in back pay and benefits, plus attorney's fees.  However, given that the employer willfully violated the FMLA (by way of the supervisor not telling the vice president of human resources about the employee's hospital stay and illness before terminating her), the employee was awarded an additional $150,000.00.  Nowak ends his article with a few tips for how employers can learn what not to do when confronted with a similar situation as in Boadi.


Department of Labor Issues Opinion Letter on Compensability of Travel Time

Last month, the Department of Labor issued an opinion letter as to the compensability of travel time for non-exempt employees.  The Department of Labor opinion letter started with a brief overview of the general law and precedent that governs what travel time is compensable and what travel time is not.  The opinion letter then proceeded to address a wide range of situations including when an employee reports to a jobsite to pick up materials/assignments and then travels to another location as well as when an employee travels away from their "home communities overnight".  While some of this may seem straightforward, employers and employees alike would be wise to use this opinion letter as an opportunity to review the relevant law and ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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