When an employer directs an employee to create a work that would trigger copyright protection, who owns the copyright? What if an employer has engaged the services of an independent contractor, who creates the work for...
Employment Law Letter
Employers with over 50 employees regularly address employees’ requests for leave under the FMLA. When the FMLA was originally enacted in 1993, the workplace looked a bit different than it does now. Most employees went to...
Human resources professionals understand the risks involved in making public announcements about the reason for an employee's termination. These considerations normally counsel a policy to remain tight-lipped about an...
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) creates two substantive employee rights. First, an eligible employee may take up to twelve weeks of protected leave as needed. Second, the employee has the right to return to the...
Q: Can we legally require employees to reimburse the company for damage to customer or company property (i.e., the full amount of damages or insurance deductible)? This question’s answer is the dreaded lawyer’s response...
Blaze Media is a Dallas-based company that provides news content of a conservative ilk. Its arbitration agreement for employees intersected with the news, however, in the form of developments caused by the #MeToo...
Recently, I ran across a case from a Houston appeals court interpreting the Texas Labor Code and illuminating how best to handle multiple concerns expressed by an employee. It deals with a hostile environment claim based...
Sometimes a lawsuit ends in defeat for the employee, and sometimes a court announces a new rule of law benefiting all employees. So, it was in an important Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) case this summer decided...
Home Depot was recently entangled in a personal injury lawsuit filed against it by an employee who hurt his back loading a lawn mower onto a customer’s trailer. Discovery [pretrial fact finding] ensued, which is where...
Q Can we legally require employees to reimburse the company for damage to customer or company property (i.e., the full amount of damages or insurance deductible)? It depends, and only to the extent doing so complies with...
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations that allow employees with disabilities to perform their essential job functions. For many years, the courts...
On July 19, 2023, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which serves as the high court for federal district courts throughout Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, affirmed orders of the Occupational Safety and Health...
Q As we reverify Form I-9 documentation, can a manager or other authorized company representative physically inspect the documents and take pictures to confirm so a central HR team can then annotate the section 2 notes...
Q: Can we fire an employee who refuses to sign an acknowledgment that they received a copy of a personnel policy? Yes. If you require all employees to sign an acknowledgement that they received a copy of a personnel...
The Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act became the Massachusetts Parental Leave Act in 2015 after some significant amendments, including that the Parental Leave Act applies to employees of all genders, that full-time...