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: I am a Human Resources representative of an independent for-profit company that publishes multiple travel and vacation magazines. Some of my company’s executives have expressed an interest in hiring interns for next summer and for a possible year-round program, if the program is successful. Currently, we aren’t sure what we would like our interns to do exactly but one...
Question: We have a group of employees who are Muslim and want to be allowed to take additional prayer breaks during Ramadan. We would rather just have them take the whole day off as vacation rather than work a different shift than other employees with long breaks interspersed throughout the day. Aren’t we safe telling them that they should take...
Question: We try and settle threatened lawsuits with lump sum settlements which include wages, tort damages, reimbursement of medical costs and attorneys’ fees. We pay the lump sum to the employees’ attorneys (Trust fund), issue a 1099 to the employee for the amounts paid, not including attorney fees, and a 1099 to the attorney for the attorney fees. We require...
Question: We are a large company with operations in several states. Three of the states in which we operate permit medical marijuana use: California, Oregon, and Washington. One of our factory employees, working in an Oregon location, recently requested that we accommodate his medicinal use of marijuana. The employee claims that even if state medical marijuana law and discrimination law...
Question: I work as an HR representative in a medium-sized California business – we employ about 50 people. Recently, a situation with one of our employees was brought to my attention, and I’ve been asked how to handle it. We have an administrative assistant with an alcohol problem. We have reason to believe that her alcoholism was the true reason...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
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...
