Atlanta Employment Attorneys Blog

The Importance of Following Your Employer’s ‘Usual and Customary’ Procedures for Requesting FMLA Leave

November 15, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

The law imposes on employers numerous requirements when it comes to the Family and Medical Leave Act. Employers would be wise to ensure they have established clear procedures for allowing workers to seek leave, and then carefully document those requests. Workers, similarly, should take care to follow their employers’ established procedures for requesting FMLA leave, as a failure to follow those steps may be harmful to a future FMLA lawsuit. For answers to your FMLA questions, be sure you are consulting with a knowledgeable Atlanta FMLA leave lawyer.

In terms of following leave request procedures, an FMLA interference case from Gwinnett County is instructive.

The worker, I.K., was a store manager at a warehouse club store in Duluth when, in 2018, she became pregnant and had a baby. In the fall of that same year, she injured her back while moving a pallet of merchandise.

How a Georgia Employer’s Methods for Paying Workers Ultimately Cost It Tens of Thousands of Dollars

November 8, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

What started as a dispute over a few hundred dollars ended with an Atlanta-area employer paying nearly $40,000. That outcome is a useful lesson to employers on several fronts. One, always maintain legally compliant pay records, including pay rates, hours worked, and sums paid. Two, always make sure that you are paying your non-exempt workers proper time-and-a-half overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a week. And three, if you feel the urge to pay wages that you owe under the Fair Labor Standards Act in a way that smacks of revenge… don’t. Just issue a check and move on. It’ll be cheaper and better for your business in the long run. If you have any questions about your rights and responsibilities under the FLSA, make sure you consult with a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

The original dispute, which received relatively broad coverage as a result of its peculiar facts, pitted a Peachtree City auto repair shop against one of its former employees. The disagreement began after the employee, A.F., contacted the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division to complain that his employer had not paid him his final paycheck, which amounted to $915.

Rather than simply cutting a check, the employer obtained 91,500 pennies, covered them in automotive fluids, and then delivered them to A.F.’s driveway. To remove doubts regarding motivation, the employer stuffed the man’s pay stub in an envelope with “[expletive] you!” written on the outside. The pile of pennies weighed more than 500 pounds and took more than seven hours to remove from the man’s driveway.

What the ADA Does (and Doesn’t) Require of Employers When It Comes to Fringe Benefits and Former Employees

October 31, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

As an employee or an employer, you undoubtedly understand that the totality of the “terms and conditions” of employment extends beyond just the basics like salary. Fringe benefits, especially things like health insurance coverage and retirement, can represent extremely important terms of employment. Discrimination related to fringe benefits potentially may entitle a worker to take legal action… but the viability of that worker’s lawsuit may depend on whether the discrimination occurred during or after the worker’s period of employment. If you have questions about discrimination and fringe benefits, make sure you’re getting the knowledgeable answers you need by talking to an experienced Atlanta disability discrimination lawyer.

A recent disability discrimination case originating in federal court in Florida is a reminder of the importance of this distinction between alleged discrimination that occurs during employment versus post-employment.

The worker, K.S., was a firefighter for a local government from 1999 to 2018. On Nov. 1, 2018, she took disability retirement at age 47 as a result of her Parkinson’s Disease.

An Unpaid Overtime Case from Atlanta Sheds Light on the Importance of Keeping Good Pay Records

October 24, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

An Atlanta wrecker and towing service found itself in court after two drivers accused it of illegally failing to pay them the overtime compensation they were properly due under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s summary judgment ruling in the case includes vital lessons for employers when it comes to the importance of maintaining clear and thorough pay records, as well as the risks involved in handing off FLSA compliance to a third party. If you’re facing an unpaid overtime claim (or pursuing one,) representation from a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can be essential to your success.

The drivers typically worked 4-5 12-hour shifts each week. The employer paid its driver a straight commission weekly that was “calculated as a percentage of the total revenue they derived from the tows they performed that week.” For one driver that percentage was 30%, for the other it was 35%.

As noted above keeping clear, understandable, and accurate time and pay records for all employees can be crucial to any business.

Constructive Discharge and What it May Mean in a Discrimination or Harassment Case in Georgia

October 17, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

The poet Gertrude Stein wrote that a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” In employment law, though, sometimes a resignation is not a resignation. Workers and employers should be aware that, if there’s evidence that a worker was forced by intolerable conditions to resign, the law will consider that resignation the equivalent of a termination. That includes things like sexual harassment so bad that it negatively affects a worker’s psychological well-being. If you have questions about a situation such as this, whether you’re an employer or an employee, make sure you’re getting reliable answers by talking to an experienced Atlanta sexual harassment lawyer.

As an example, we can look at the sexual harassment case of A.C., a woman working as a security officer for an Acworth-based company. The federal court for the Northern District of Georgia issued an important ruling this past May in the case (originally filed in 2021) in which it clarified what plaintiffs do and don’t need to establish a constructive discharge based on sexual harassment.

Less than a year after the woman started, a male coworker allegedly began sexually harassing her. The alleged harassment included making “lewd statements,” “touching her in an ‘unwelcome and inappropriate’ manner,” and cornering her in a closet while threatening sexual contact.

‘Qualified Individuals’ Under the ADA in Disability Discrimination Lawsuits

October 10, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Any federal employment discrimination lawsuit is something worth taking very seriously, whether you’re the worker pursuing the case or the employer being sued That includes assessing the ways an employer can defeat a claim, potentially even before the lawsuit makes it to trial.
Whichever side you’re on, you can strengthen your position by getting in touch with an experienced Atlanta disability discrimination lawyer about the matter.

A recent disability discrimination case from here in Georgia is an example of an employer succeeding on a summary judgment motion and avoiding a trial on a worker’s disability discrimination case.

S.L. worked as a lineman for a Georgia electric utility. The employer required all its linemen to maintain a valid commercial driver’s license (CDL) at all times. The employer defined possession of a CDL as essential to the job of a lineman as, according to the employer, any lineman might need to drive a commercial vehicle on an unpredictable basis.

The U.S. Department of Labor Proposes a Major Modification in the Salary Threshold Tied to the FLSA’s Executive and Administrative Exemptions

September 30, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Earlier this year, the Fair Labor Standards Act celebrated its 85th anniversary. Later this year, the executive and administrative exemptions will also turn 85 years old. The FLSA helps ensure workers receive fair compensation, while the exemptions provide important aid to employers. Whether you are an employer or an employee, it’s important to understand what the FLSA and its exemptions do (and don’t) require. If you have questions, get in touch with a skilled Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer to get the knowledgeable answers you need.

When the federal government created the first salary threshold for the executive and administrative exemptions in 1938, that number was $1,560 annually. By 1949, the figure was $5,200.

Currently, the minimum salary an employer can pay and also claim the executive or administrative exemption is $684 per week, or just over $35,500. If a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor takes effect as written, that figure will — for the first time — climb above $50,000 annually, at $1,059 per week, or just slightly above $55,000 annually.

How a Workplace’s Time Clock Rounding Policy May Constitute a FLSA Violation

September 25, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A case from outside Georgia serves as a useful reminder to employers and employees alike regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act’s rules regarding “rounding” time a worker works each day. The overarching concept that you need to know is this: if an employer’s rounding policy results in an outcome where, over time, workers are not compensated “properly for all the time they have actually worked,” then that policy may represent an FLSA violation. If you have questions about a time rounding policy, make sure to get reliable answers by consulting an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

The recent case involved a Kansas City-based health system and a large class of its workers. The health system used a popular computer software-based timekeeping system, Kronos Workforce Timekeeper.

The employer had a rounding policy where a “clock-in” or “clock-out” that occurred within six minutes of the scheduled shift start or end time was rounded. In other words, a worker who clocked in at 8:04 for an 8:00 shift was paid as if she arrived at 8:00. Similarly, a worker who clocked out at 6:05 for a shift ending at 6:00 was paid as if she left at 6:00.

Which Workers Are (and Aren’t) Exempt from Overtime Compensation as a Result of Their Executive Duties

September 18, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asked the timeless literary question, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” Those lines highlight the truth that changing a name or a title does not, by itself, change the named item’s inherent identity and characteristics. This also can be true in employment law where, just because a job title sounds like a managerial role, the reality of the work you do every day may indicate that your job actually is something very different, which can matter a great deal when it comes to overtime compensation. If you have questions about exempt status or possible unpaid overtime, you should take the time to get reliable answers by contacting a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

Recently, this blog looked at the administrative exemption to the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Today, we focus on another exemption that generates disputes with some frequency: the executive exemption. In many instances, these disputes involve managers at retail establishments who spend most of their workdays doing non-managerial work.

Last month, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions guide federal cases in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee) considered one of these matters and ruled for the employer.

When an Employer Can — and Can’t — Use a Statutory Exemption Argument as a Stopper Against an Unpaid Overtime Claim

September 11, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In some ways, wage and hour law can be like the game of bridge. Each has various sets of rules that can layer on top of (or intertwine with) one another. In each setting, the difference between success and defeat often can come down to which side understands, utilizes, and deploys those concepts more effectively. If you have questions about the law of overtime compensation, be sure to get in touch with an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer (who may or may not be able to help you with your bridge game.)

Why do we bring up bridge? In this instance, it’s because some employees of the world’s largest contract bridge league recently scored a win in their unpaid overtime lawsuit.

In 2018, the league reorganized its Field Operations Department, creating four new salaried roles: Area Manager, Mentor, National Tournament Director, and Associate National Tournament Director.