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
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Quirky Question # 123: Here’s a problem we encounter periodically. We have a large workforce (in excess of 100,000 employees). An employee goes out on disability leave, with an expected return date of X. As that date approaches, we are advised that the employee will need additional time away from the job. We try to get precise information regarding when...
Question: We’re a large company with offices in many locations, including in California, Minnesota, Washington and New York City. We often have disabled employees provide doctors’ notes that say they are unable to work, but that do not provide an expected date the employee will be cleared medically to return. When we ask these individuals for a return date, they...
Question: We employ a very elderly lady, Agnes. In fact, she’s a great-grandmother. She has asked to take some time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act. See tells us that her daughter Beatrice is out of the picture, but that Agnes raised Beatrice’s daughter, Catherine, who now herself has a two-year-old daughter Dorothy. Catherine is having foot surgery...
Why You Should Re-Evaluate Your Independent Contractor Designations In an uncertain economy, companies are often reluctant to commit to permanent hires and instead choose to rely upon independent contractors to meet their staffing needs. But what might seem like an optimal staffing strategy can pose significant risks to companies. The U.S. government is cracking down on companies that treat workers...
Question: We run a manufacturing company. We are fortunate in that, despite the difficult economy, our products remain in high demand. One of our employees has a couple of related disabilities, the consequence of which is that he only can work a maximum of 8 hours each day. In the past, we have been able to accommodate this limitation. But,...
Question: We are a national company. We sell products through a network of sales representatives. Sometimes they’re great. Sometimes they aren’t. When they aren’t, we fire them and move on. Recently, we learned that dumping underperforming sales representatives in Minnesota may not be so easy. Can you enlighten us? Is this regulated by statute?
Question: Our company is located in Washington. To limit costs, we turned to use independent contractors in order to avoid paying benefits, limit overhead, and increase flexibility. But when can someone we hired as an “independent contractor” and for whom we expressly retained no “right to control” nonetheless be deemed an employee, exposing the company to unplanned risks under Federal...
Question: One of our employees recently claimed that he is entitled to a reasonable accommodation of his physical disability (a serious back problem). We were unable to work out an accommodation for the employee (we probably did not do as much as we should have during the negotiation phase) and we terminated his employment. He then sued us under the...
Question: Our company is located in California. We have language in our handbook that says all our employees are “at-will.” Our existing handbook also includes provisions setting out the conditions under which we will lay people off and what benefits they would be entitled to if that were necessary. This was put in place five years ago. Given the current...
On June 17, 2010, a sharply divided United States Supreme Court resolved the case of New Process Steel LP v. NLRB. The highly anticipated decision resolved a Circuit split that had developed after the National Labor Relations Board, which normally has five members, spent 27 months issuing decisions as a two-member body. In a 5-4 decision, written by Justice Stevens...
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...
