Real Life Employment Law
Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the in-house counsel and Human Resources professionals who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have "seen it all," along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. These individuals often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these "Quirky Questions" can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate practical and legal issues that are not immediately apparent.
This Quirky Employment Questions Blog addresses unanticipated questions regarding the workforce.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts and reactions to the questions presented. We also encourage you to submit questions that you would like to see addressed, subject to these guidelines.
Stephen D. Bell
Michael Droke
Joseph W. Hammell
Sarah Andrews Herman
Ryan E. Mick
William J. Miller
Melissa Raphan
Gregory M. Saylin
Gabrielle Wirth
David C. SingerBLOG CONTACT INFO
E: Wirth.Gabrielle@dorsey.com
P: 714.800.1455
Question: An employee in our Corporate Office recently informed Human Resources that she was requesting bereavement leave with respect to her sister’s death last month. When she was informed of our company policy, that up to 3 days of paid time off may be taken to attend the funeral, she said her attorney friend told her a new law requires...
Question: A junior member of our marketing department left to join a competitor. While she was with us, she created numerous marketing brochures with photographs of her demonstrating our product. We received a letter from the competitor demanding that we remove her picture from our brochures and website and delete her name on any company materials. It would be very...
Question: We have a new CFO who is upset by the huge amount of accrued vacation we have to carry on the books. We have a cap of two times the annual accrual. He says most high tech companies like ours have unlimited vacation plans and that this eliminates the need to carry accrued vacation. Is this a new trend? ...
Question: We are in the midst of preparing for our 2013 holiday party. We plan to schedule an evening event and intend to provide our employees and their guests with free food, entertainment, and alcohol; after all, we’ve worked hard all year and want to celebrate! How do we avoid risk while we host a fun party?
Question: We are an accounting firm and recently fired an employee at will. We have always understood that Montana law disfavors non-competition agreements, therefore, our employment agreement provides that if the accountant provides services to our clients within six months of leaving, he will pay us the profits from such an engagement which are stipulated to be 75% of gross...
Question : One day during the lunch break, as I was heading to my car in the parking lot, I discovered two employees smoking what smelled like pot. I approached the employees and reprimanded them for engaging in illegal activities on the job, and told them that I would have them terminated. One of the employees, whose mother works at...
Question: We subsidize a different meal in our employee cafeteria each week. For example, last week hamburgers were only $2.00 instead of $5.00. Usually we subsidize meat dishes. A vegan employee has protested we do not similarly subsidize vegan dishes and has stated that our failure to do so constitutes religious discrimination. This can’t be correct – right?
Question: We are in Montana and a very obese woman recently applied for a manager position. The position is more physical than most in that there is significant walking between facilities, and the candidate must climb ladders to view the product line in the manufacturing facility. We declined to hire this candidate because we did not think she could safely...
Question: I discovered one of my employees announced on Facebook that our company is a horrible place to work and she is just “coasting” and waiting to be fired. Normally, I would just fire her, but our CFO is worried that internet communications between employees in social media can be “protected.” What is the recent law?
Question: We have employees in California, Washington and Utah where I understand there may be separate statutes protecting pregnancy disability leave and requiring up to sixteen (16) weeks of protected leave (as opposed to twelve (12) under FMLA). We terminated an employee in California for not returning after her sixteen (16) week leave and she is threatening to sue. Aren’t...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
Jennifer ServiceJen has experience providing advice on the full range of employment law issues to large, multi-state employers....
Jack SullivanJack is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employment group, where he focuses his practice on employment adv...
Ieva AubinAs an employment and business immigration attorney, ...
Michael DrokeMike started his career as a client, not a lawyer...
Matt DurhamMatt defends employers in Utah and throughout the ...
Aaron GoldsteinAaron is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Josh HughesJosh’s experience spans trial and appellate advoc...
Jillian KornblattJillian is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Laura LestradeLaura began practicing at Dorsey in 1992 and has s...
Ryan MickFor more than a decade, Ryan has counseled corpo...
Nick PappasNick litigates and counsels with respect to com...
Melissa RaphanMelissa is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor and Employ...
Gabrielle WirthEmployers turn to Gabrielle for guidance on how they...
