Employment Law
Employment law is based on a complex interaction of state and federal laws designed to establish the rights and obligations of both employers and employees in the employment relationship. In general, workplace rights are diverse and complicated, applying to employees, job applicants and former employees, often involving constitutional rights.
Every employee, former employee and job applicant has basic rights in the workplace that have been established by intricate state and federal laws. While employment disputes are often complex, many disputes involve:
FLSA/Wage and Hour Cases
The Fair Labor and Standards Act, enacted to law in 1938, is a Federal Law which incorporated important rights for employees and responsibilities for employers. The FLSA instituted a national minimum wage for employees, and guaranteed that employees who worked overtime time and a half in pay for certain jobs. The act also contains provisions for protecting youth in the workplace from dangerous employment.
Wage & Hour Litigation
Multi-plaintiff wage and hour lawsuits have grown significantly in recent years, and settlements have reached into the tens of millions of dollars.
Violations
Employers often take advantage of the employee, and violate the law in a number of ways including:
- Failure to pay minimum wage
- Misclassification of employees as independent contractors
- Misclassification of hourly employees as salaried thereby denying them overtime pay
- Failure to pay otherwise exempt employees on a salary basis
- Failure to pay overtime
- Failure to pay for “Off-the-clock” time worked
- Failure to pay for time required for changing into and out of uniforms
- Failure to pay for working through meals
- Denied reimbursements
- Miscalculated commissions and bonuses
- Tip pooling
Remedies
If you believe you have been affected by an FLSA violation, you have 2 years to file for recovery of back pay under the FLSA unless the violation is willful, in which case a 3-year statute of limitations applies instead. The most common remedy under FLSA is to seek damages in the form of back pay for time owed. If the Court finds that the violation was intentional, an employee may be entitled to double damages.
Discrimination in the Workplace
Federal laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Age Discrimination Act prohibit employers from discriminating against individuals on a variety of different characteristics, including sex, race, age or religion. Discrimination takes place in many forms and may not even be intentional.
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Every worker, whether male or female, has the right to be free of sexual harassment by employers and fellow workers in the workplace. Victims of unwelcome sexual advances by an employer or a hostile work environment are entitled to relief and redress.
Contracting in the Workplace
Employees have rights and obligations that relate to the contractual relationship between the employer and employee. While individual claims related to employment agreements, employment contracts, layoffs and severance agreements involve diverse aspects of employment law, an experienced employment litigation attorney can fight for the rights and advantages of individual employees.
Whistleblower Retaliation
When employees bring an employer's illegal actions or practices to light, they have a right to be free from retaliation. Under state and federal laws, whistleblowers enjoy a number of different protections.