Friday, November 21, 2008

WIRTW #57


Two topics dominate the employment law headlines this week – the new FMLA regulations and the continued debate over the prospects for the Employee Free Choice Act. I’ve covered the former in depth earlier in the week (here and here). The following blogs all wrote this week on the latter, the EFCA: Today’s Workplace, Jottings By An Employer's Lawyer, World of Work, and Work Matters. In related news, Overlawyered happily reports that employment lawyers are busier than ever.

As always seem to be the case, we have a couple of interesting wage and hour posts: George’s Employment Blawg on wage and hour implications for telecommuters, and the Workplace Prof Blog on whether time spent booting up one’s computer is considered compensable work time.

The Trade Secrets Blog reports on a case before the Ohio Supreme Court on whether certain customer-related information qualifies as a trade secret.

The MMMG Law Blog discusses a 10th Circuit case, which may be the first of its kind to apply the Supreme Court’s Holowecki standard of what constitutes a “charge” of discrimination.

The Delaware Employment Law Blog gives some helpful guidance on how to properly make deductions from a salaried employee’s pay without jeopardizing an FLSA exemption.

BLR’s HR Daily Advisor properly advises that when management hears a rumor about inappropriate or discriminatory workplace conduct, it should investigate and not ignore it.

Finally, the Toronto Employment Lawyer points out a key difference between American and Canadian employment law – apparently north-of-the-border management-level employees have an affirmative duty to provide a reasonable notice of resignation.