PDA
Usage Drives Claims for Unpaid Overtime
by
Kate Sturdivant Gibson
In
this day and age it is commonplace for employers
to issue communication devices such as
Blackberries, iPhones and Androids (collectively
"PDAs") to employees. These devices allow
employees to work and respond to emails and other
communications without being tethered to their
desks. They are beneficial to both the employer
and employee - PDAs help the employer by
increasing employee productivity and help the
employee by allowing greater work flexibility.
Unfortunately, the issuance of these devices
creates an unanticipated complication for many
employers - unpaid overtime.
Read the
full article on our website.
|
DOL
Proposes New Rules for Home Health Care Service
Providers
by
Carrie M. Harris
Home health care service
providers may need to review how they pay many of
their employees, as a long-standing overtime
exemption is slated to be eliminated by the
Department of Labor ("DOL"). The DOL has published
a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise the
regulations pertaining to companionship and
live-in domestic workers, with a 60-day public
comment period set to close in the near future. If
the new regulations are implemented, they would
eliminate the availability of the companionship
exemption for third-party employers providing home
health care.
Read
more on our website.
|
DOL
Proposes Changes to the FMLA
by
Larissa C. Dean &
Tamara B.
Williamson
The Department of
Labor's Wage and Hour Division is proposing
changes to the regulations that govern the Family
and Medical Leave Act (the "FMLA" or the "Act").
The proposed changes include provisions relating
to an employer's ability to opt to use different
increments of FMLA under certain circumstances and
clarify an employer's responsibility to reinstate
an employee after FMLA leave in situations where
it may be impossible, as opposed to inconvenient,
to reinstate an employee mid-shift. The changes
would also remove optional-use forms and notices
from the FMLA. Finally, the proposed changes
reflect new statutory amendments to the FMLA
contained in the National Defense Authorization
Act (the "NDAA") and in the Airline Flight Crew
Technical Corrections Act (the "AFCTCA"). The
Division is accepting public comments until April
16, 2012.
Read
the full article on our website.
| |
Notes
from the Chair
& Executive
Editor
Our first 2012
edition of SuperVision Today features a number of
timely articles for C-suite executives, human
resources professionals and L & E
practitioners. It is our intent for SuperVision
Today to provide information that is of value to
you. Accordingly, if there are topics that you
would like to see covered or ideas or matters that
you want to see addressed within SuperVision
Today, please feel free to drop us a line, and we will see
what we can do. Please look for our upcoming
SuperVision conferences (our live seminar on
cutting-edge human capital topics) to take place
in Charleston, W.Va. on June 22 and in the
Winston-Salem, N.C. triad area this fall. For more
information about the SuperVision seminar series
or on Spilman's nationally recognized Labor and
Employment Practice Group, please visit www.spilmanlaw.com/labor-employment.
Click here to read our
thoughts on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision
affecting arbitration. We will be sure to discuss
this decision in more detail in subsequent
editions of this e-newsletter.
Eric W.
Iskra
Chair, Labor & Employment
Group |
Recess
Appointments to NLRB Stir
Controversyby Peter R.
RichPresident Obama announced
on January 4, 2012, that he would use his power of
recess appointment to fill three vacancies on the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). All three
appointees had been formally nominated by the
President for their positions but the Senate
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
had not yet acted on any of the nominations. The
new members are Sharon Block (D), Terence F. Flynn
(R), and Richard Griffin (D). The appointees join
current NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce (D) and
Member Brian Hayes (R) to bring the Board to its
full 5-member strength for the first time since
late August of 2010. Pearce and Hayes were both
confirmed by the Senate to their positions on June
22, 2010. Read the full article on our website. |
In
the Wake of Kastenby
Erin Jones Adams
The anti-retaliation provision in Section
215(a)(3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA")
makes it unlawful for an employer to "discharge or
in any manner discriminate against any employee
because such employee has filed any complaint or
instituted or caused to be instituted any
proceeding under or related to this chapter, or
has testified or is about to testify in any such
proceeding." On March 22, 2011, the Supreme Court
of the United States decided Kasten v.
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., 131 S.
Ct. 1325 (2011), and continued its expansion of
employee protections for workplace conduct,
holding that Section 215(a)(3) of the FLSA bars
retaliation based on oral as well as written
complaints. In January 2012, the Fourth Circuit
applied the reasoning from Kasten to broaden the
scope of protected activity under the FLSA to
include intra-company complaints.
Read the full article on our website. | |
