A federal judge has ordered American Made Bags to pay $189,756 to a group of 48 employees, half as unpaid wages and half as liquidated damages.
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Local bag company learns an expensive lesson on wage and hour compliance
A federal judge has ordered American Made Bags to pay $189,756 to a group of 48 employees, half as unpaid wages and half as liquidated damages.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2022
The wage and hour risks of rounding
"Iraene" asks the following question on the Antiwork subreddit.
I was told to round down or round up my time. So if I start work at 7:55 I need to put 8. If I work 37 minutes, I should round down to 30, instead of 45 because this is a common business practice. Is this normal? I have entered exact times on the card and into ADP so idk why it's a problem now.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, March 8, 2022
The time has come to limit the overuse and overbreadth of noncompetition agreements
It's been nearly five years since I asked this question: "Is your non-compete agreement killing a fly with a sledgehammer?" Now it seems that the federal government is asking the same question.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, March 7, 2022
THIS is why craft breweries need to pay very close attention to labor unions
It was a simple question posed in the Craft Beef Professionals Facebook group: "Conversations on fair compensation are extremely important in our industry. What is a brewery that impresses you with the way they treat their team?"
The IWW is looking into this and the other plethora of issues we face as workers in this industry. Reach out to brewing@iww.org if you're interested in creating a better work environment near you.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, March 4, 2022
WIRTW #616: the “cocktail” edition
Have you heard about Pravda Brewery, in Lviv, Ukraine. It has stopped producing craft beer and instead is making Molotov cocktails for the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces.
"Once we understand what can come through beer — because it’s no time for beer, we need to get other things sorted out — we decided to make Molotov cocktails because we can use bottles, we can use the people, and it was a grassroots idea."
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, March 3, 2022
Brewery CEO out after backlash to controversial vaccine comments
Vaccine mandates are a crime against humanity.
If you are not speaking out against them, you are a conspirator.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, March 2, 2022
I’m not quite ready to declare the pandemic over, but I am ready to stop writing about it every single day
Nearly two years ago, I re-branded the Ohio Employer Law Blog as the Coronavirus Law Blog. It was a bit of marketing combined with the realization that Covid would be all that mattered to employers, at least in the short term.
That "short term" will turn two years old in nine days.
Today, however, I am officially re-re-branding the blog back to the Ohio Employer Law Blog.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, March 1, 2022
If you want to get yourself into discrimination hot water, stereotype your protected-class employees
To cases recently settled by the EEOC illustrate the point that stereotypes of protected-class employees are a quick path an expensive lesson.
- Ranew's Management Company agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a disability discrimination claim after it fired an employee based on a "lack of trust" instead of permitting her to return from a leave of absence resulting from severe depression.
- American Freight Furniture and Mattress agreed to pay $5,000,000 to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit based on allegations that managers made hiring decisions based on bias and stereotypes, including that women would not "do as great a job at selling furniture as men," could not work in the warehouse because "women can’t lift," and that female employees would be " distraction" to their male coworkers.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, February 28, 2022
Coronavirus Update 2-28-22: CDC eliminates mask guidance for 70% of Americans
The CDC has issued new mask guidance based on the level of Covid-19 in a specific county.
- In counties with a low level of Covid (green) — individuals are permitted to remove masks.
- In counties with a medium level of Covid (yellow) — individuals who are at high risk for severe illness are recommended to talk to their healthcare provider about whether they need to wear a mask and take other safety precautions.
- In counties with a high level of Covid (red) — individuals are recommended to wear a mask indoors in public.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, February 25, 2022
WIRTW #615: the “prayers” edition
I pray for the people of Ukraine.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, February 24, 2022
I hate “Tattleware”
I thought I had my next Worst Employer nominee. News broke yesterday of the mass exodus of employees from real estate company CoStar after allegations came to light of the company spying on work-from-home employees through the cameras on the company-issued laptops. I even had the post written.
But in further researching the issue I came across this story that ran yesterday on the Today Show: 'Tattleware': How your boss might be tracking your remote activity.
Its use skyrocketed as most companies switched to a work-from-home model during the Covid-19 pandemic.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Tip credits and tip pools — the tip of the FLSA iceberg
No employment law is more misunderstood and misapplied by employers than the Fair Labor Standards Act, our federal wage and hour law. There are more than 8,000 federal FLSA lawsuits filed per year, with nearly one-quarter filed against employers in the accommodation and food service industry … including craft breweries.
These employers get themselves in legal trouble because of the special manner in which service industry employees are compensated. If you employ workers who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips (and every craft brewery does), there are two key FLSA phrases you must understand to avoid FLSA landmines — tip credit and tip pool.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Vacation (all I ever wanted) — 7 tips to encourage your employees to use their paid time off
"AITA for turning my work phone off on vacation?" That's the question that someone recently posted on the eponymous subreddit.
I checked my phone voicemail and the unknown number was him saying he "hoped there was a damn good excuse for why I was off the grid" if I wanted to keep my job. He even started out the voicemail with "I'm so sorry you’re in the hospital because that's the only reason I should be needing to hunt you down like this." In slack I had a few dms from coworkers I feel I get along with saying I need to reply ASAP because my absence was impacting them with how mad our boss was.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, February 21, 2022
This dissenting opinion in the United Airlines vaccine-mandate case is 58 pages of pure judicial rage
It's been a little over three months since a federal district court in Forth Worth, Texas, denied a preliminary injunction to a group of unvaccinated employees of United Airlines challenging its vaccine mandate. The court so ruled because the employees, whom United had placed on an unpaid leave of absence, had a viable claim for money damages and with that adequate legal remedy couldn't simultaneously seek an equitable remedy.
It's been a little over two months since a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to issue an injunction pending the appeal of that district court decision.
Late last week, however, a different three-judge panel of that same appellate court concluded that the employees had established irreparable harm to support their claim for injunctive relief and sent the case back to the district court to reconsider its prior ruling in light of that holding.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, February 18, 2022
WIRTW #614: the “North Star” edition
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, February 17, 2022
An employer has disability discrimination problems if the interactive process isn’t interactive
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, February 16, 2022
A step in the right direction to ending workplace sexual harassment
When is the last time you recall Congress agreeing on anything? Well, it happened last week, when the Senate passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (full text here.)
Simply, once signed by President Biden (which should happen imminently), any agreement that requires an employee to submit a sexual harassment claim to private arbitration, or waive their right to participate in a class or collective action, would be invalid and unenforceable.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2022
What do you do for a living?
The question, "What do you do for a living," doesn't have a straight-line answer. My law firm bio offers several answers.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, February 14, 2022
The 4th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2022” is … the WTF racist
I can't do these truly awful allegations of systemic racism, racist harassment, and retaliation any more justice than the actual allegations from the lawsuit that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing just filed against Tesla.
They are the worst allegations of workplace racism I've ever encountered. They start with claims of a segregated workplace with the Black section referred to as the "porch monkey station," the "slaveship," and the "plantation," and go downhill from there to include daily utterances of every kind of racist slur (including the n-word, "porch monkey," and "coon") 50 - 100 times per day.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, February 11, 2022
WIRTW #613: the “competition” edition
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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