Wait, an employer can’t fire an employee on FMLA leave caught on Facebook on vacation?

Actual firing Facebook photo

Suppose you have an employee who takes FMLA leave for rotator-cuff surgery. Let’s say during said FMLA leave, you discover that the employee is vacationing on a Caribbean island. And, further suppose that you discover this employee’s island vacay via his own public Facebook posts, which included photos of him on the beach, posing by a boat wreck, and in the ocean. Or, more accurately the employee’s co-workers saw the photos and ratted him out to management.

So, what do you do?

WIRTW #459 (the “weeps” edition)

How did I not know this was a thing? Last summer, The Beatles released a remix of my favorite song of theirs, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles’ show, LOVE (an absolute must-do if you find yourself in Vegas). The new arrangement is the final work of legendary Beatles’ produced George Martin before his passing.

(For what’s it’s worth, I prefer what many consider the definitive version of this song—from George Harrison’s 2004 induction into the Rock Hall—performed with zero Beatles, one spawn of Beatles, two Traveling Wilburys, and one beautiful and blistering Prince guitar solo—The New York Times has a wonderful account of that performance here).

Here’s what I read this week:

The top 6 employee handbook mistakes

Yesterday, I had a pleasure of presenting a webinar for The Builder’s Exchange: The Top 6 Employee Handbook Mistakes. For your viewing pleasure and educational enlightenment, I’ve embedded it below.

  The Top 6 Employee Handbook Mistakes

Congrats to Philip Miscimarra on his appointment as NLRB Chair

I’m on record as calling Philip Miscimarra “mad as hell,” referring to his scathing dissents in recent NLRB protected concerted activity cases. I also have it on good authority that while he and I agree that the NLRB has gone off the proverbial reservation in these cases, he is not, in fact, mad as hell.

Be that as it may, he has every reason today to be as happy as he can be.

2nd Circuit holds that it’s perfectly okay for an employee to curse out his boss on Facebook (NSFW)

It’s been two years since the NLRB determined that section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protected an employee’s profanity laced Facebook rant simply because he ended it with a pro union message. I held out hope that the court of appeals would see the folly in the decision and send a clear message to employees and employers that such misconduct remains a terminable offense. NLRB v. Pier Sixty (2nd Cir. 4/21/17) [pdf] dashed that hope.

National origin discrimination laws don’t matter in Trump’s America

Last week, President Trump signed his “Buy American, Hire American“ Executive Order. The EO encourages American businesses to buy American-made products and hire American workers.

Come again? Does that say hire American workers? Doesn’t Title VII prohibit national origin discrimination?

Yes, Title VII still prohibits national origin discrimination. And, no, this Executive Order does nothing to change Title VII’s impact. But the manner in which the White House is promoting this EO is … curiously disturbing.

WIRTW #458 (the “update” edition)

Two stories I’ve recently covered—Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly sex harassment problem and Ernest Angley’s wage-and-hour problem—had pretty significant updates this week.

• Fox News (finally) fired Bill O’Reilly.
• Earnest Angley closed his buffet, which had for years illegally used the services of unpaid volunteers and child labor. Looks like he finally found something he could not save.

Who says there’s no justice in this world?

Here’s what else I read this week: