Iowa Lawyer & Attorney : Sullivan & Ward Law Firm : Iowa Law Blog

It's been said before: Wage and hour claims are the newest trend in the employment law area. Recently Wal-Mart got hit with a $6.5 million judgment for violating Minnesota wage and hour laws. The judgment could increase to $2 billion depending on the penalties imposed. Apparently Wal-Mart required employees to work off the clock and denied rest and meal breaks to employees. The 151 page opinion can be found here.

What can you do to prevent a wage and hour claim? Start by classifying your employees correctly. Employees are either exempt or non-exempt. The most common types of exempt employees are executive, administrative and professional. Non-exempt employees must be paid overtime.

Keep accurate records of the hours worked by non-exempt employees. Using punch-in and punch-out clocks may be the most accurate, but at the very least have employees write their hours on a time sheet for each pay period. Iowa law requires employers to keep these records for three years.

Make policies clear to employees and managers. If breaks are given to employees, make it clear to employees that they should or must take the breaks. Make sure managers understand this as well. It seems Wal-Mart's policy was to give workers meal and rest breaks, however, managers either directly or indirectly required employees to work during meal and rest breaks with no pay.

For more information on the wage and hour law check out the DOL website

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I recently attended an employment law seminar in St. Paul, Minnesota. One key topic that kept resurfacing in the sessions I attended was RETALIATION. Title VII retaliation claims have increased 19% from 2006. 

An employer retaliates when it makes an adverse employment decision which tends to discourage an employee from engaging in protected conduct. What is an adverse employment decision? Although not clearly defined, the Supreme Court has made it clear that it is not necessarily have to be a tangible employment decision, such as termination. What is protected conduct? Whistleblowing, filing a complaint, taking FMLA leave or making a worker’s compensation claim are all examples of protected conduct.

What should employers do to minimize retaliation claims?

• Have a clear policy prohibiting retaliation;
• Educate managers and supervisors about retaliation;
• Enforce policies consistently for all;
• Refrain from making hasty decisions when employees have engaged in protected activity in the recent past even if you believe the decision is warranted;
• Investigate all retaliation claims and discipline those who have engaged in retaliation. Inform the employee alleging retaliation of your findings and whether any disciplinary action will take place;

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We all know that sometimes HOW you say something is more important that WHAT you say or WHY you say it. This is especially true when it comes to terminating employees. In “Halloween” from Season 2 of The Office, Michael Scott provides one way to go about terminating an employee. (You can purchase this episode at iTunes or Amazon). However, I would suggest reading today’s posting on the Pennsylvania Employment Law Blog for excellent tips to use if you have to terminate an employee. It stresses the importance of focusing on HOW you terminate an employee rather than WHY you are terminating an employee. Focusing on the HOW may reduce the blow of WHAT you are saying.

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The Question of the Week posted this week got me thinking about the classification of temporary employees. Temporary workers are workers that are employed by a staffing agency which supplies workers to the client company. Temporary workers report to the client, but receive pay and benefits from the staffing agency. Temporary workers, therefore, are considered to be the employee of the staffing agency rather than the client company.

The risk of having a temp become an employee of the client company arises when the client company retains a certain amount of control over the temp. If that happens, the client company may face liability for a wide variety of employment related issues including discrimination and wage and hour violations.

How can the client company reduce the risk of having a temp become classified as an employee? The suggestions listed below are taken from “Get Smart When Using Temporary Employees” and a 2004 Iowa case, Willms v. Associated Materials Inc.

• Allow the staffing agency to communicate the rate of pay and hours to the temp;
• Require the staffing agency to perform drug testing or background checks;
• Request the staffing agency perform periodic visits to the job site;
• Differentiate the temp uniforms, badges, parking spaces, break rooms, etc. from the permanent employees’;
• Allow the staffing agency to make hiring and firing decisions as well as take disciplinary action;
• Limit the time period a temp works at the site;
• Refer to the temp as a worker who is assigned rather than an employee who is hired;
• Always have your attorney review your agreement with the agency.

In short, treat temporary employees different than your permanent employees. A client company may not be able to completely eliminate the risks of having temporary workers classified as employees, but by using some of the suggestions above the risk will be reduced.

Photo on flickr by DCvision2006

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An article in the Des Moines Register affirms my advice in a past blog: Have an internet, e-mail, and/or computer policy AND enforce the policy consistently. Michael Hopewell has been terminated from IPERS for circulating an indecent email. Hopewell, believing his termination was improper, has brought an action against the agency for unemployment benefits. IPERS claims the email joke violated its computer policy. I would imagine the nudity in the email did violate IPERS’ computer policy.  However, just from reading the article, I can presume Hopewell’s argument will be: Jokes and emails like this (maybe even worse) have been forwarded around this agency hundreds of times and nobody has ever been fired before. Based on the article, it seems that IPERS has, at least in some manner, enforced the policy in the past. It’s not clear what the outcome will be in this situation, but it is clear that having a computer policy and enforcing that policy consistently is a good business practice. 

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Julie Elgar of That’s What She Said uses the employees of The Office to illustrate the pervasiveness of internet use in the workplace. Elgar recognizes that unmonitored internet usage can lead to a decline of productivity and even worse harassment among employees. What should employers do? As Elgar says it’s important to develop a monitoring system and inform the employees that the system is in place.   Communicating the policy to the employees reduces their exepctation of privacy in the workplace.  Inform employees of any disciplinary policy you may have regarding violations of the intenet usage policy.

Photo on flickr by *diggin an old dude*

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