BWL 302 Exam 2

Employment at Will

A: Either party may terminate at any time for any reason

B: Expectations based on Contract Theory

Contract Theory

A: Actual Contract

B: Implied Employment Contract

B>!: Example Employee Manual

Exceptions Based on Tort Theory

A: Discharge of an employee may give rise to an action for wrongful discharge under tort theories.

B: Abusive discharge procedures may result in a lawsuit for intentional infliction of emotional distress or defamation.

Exceptions based on Public Policy

Public often expressed clearly in the statutory law governing the jurisdiction.

A: Example Whistleblowing

Wrongful Discharge

Discharge in violation of an employment contract or a statutory law protecting employees.

Federal Statutes

Davis - Bacon Act

Walsh - Healey Act

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Davis - Bacon Act

Requires contractors and subcontractors working on federal government construction projects to pay "prevailing wages" to their employees.

Walsh - Healey Act

Applies to U.S. Government contracts and requires that a minimum wage - and overtime pay at 1.5 times regular pay rates - be paid to employees of manufacturers or suppliers entering into contracts with agencies of the federal government.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Extended wage-hour requirements to cover all employers engaged in interstate commerce or in producing goods for interstate commerce.

Child labor:

A: FLSA prohibits oppressive child labor

B: Children under fourteen years of age can do only certain types of work.

C: Children aged fourteen and fifteen are allowed to work, but not in hazardous occupations.

D: Restrict numbers of hours per day and per week can work.

E: Working times and hours are not restricted for persons between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, but they cannot be employed in hazardous jobs.

Children under fourteen years of age can

Only do certain types of work

Children aged fourteen and fifteen are

allowed to work, but not in hazardous occupations

____ numbers of hours per day and per week can work

Restrict

Children aged between sixteen and eighteen can

working times and hours are not restricted for the person but cannot be employed in hazardous jobs.

Minimum Wages:

FLSA provides that minimum wage to covered nonexempt employees.

Most states also have __________ wages law

Minimum

Can be ______ the federal minimum wage

above

Employees is entitled to the _______ minimum wage

higher

Tipped workers:

FLSA give employers a tip credit toward the minimum wage amount.

$2.13 an hour in direct wages ----

if that amount, plus the tips received, equals at least the federal minimum wage.

If it does not equal the federal minimum wage than

the employer must make up the difference.

If employers pay at least the federal minimum wage:

FLSA allows them to take employee tips and make other arrangements for their distribution.

Overtime Provisions and Exemptions

A: If employees who works more than forty hours per week must be paid no less than 1.5 times the regular pay for all hours worked over forty.

B: FLSA overtime provisions apply only after an employee has worked more than forty hours per week.

If Employee who works more than forty hours per week must:

be paid no less than 1.5 times the regular pay for all hours worked over forty.

FLSA overtime provisions apply only:

After an employee has worked more than forty hours per week.

Certain Employees are exempt:

A: Executive

B: Administrative

C: Professional employees

D: Outside salespersons, and

E: Those who create computer code

Employers can Voluntarily pay overtime to ineligible employees but

Cannot waive or reduce the overtime requirements of the FLSA.

Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

(WARN)

(WARN)

A: Applies to Employers with one hundred full-time employees

B: Provides sixty day's notice before implementing a mass layoff or closing a plant that employs more than fifty full-time workers.

Mass Layoff

1/3 of full time employees at a job site

Closing Plant

Fifty full time employees.

The WARN Act gives workers advance notice

A: Can look for new jobs while still employed

B: Alerts state agencies so that they can provide training and other resources for displaced workers.

Violations of WARN Act:

A: Can be fined up to $500 for each day of the violation

B: Back pay

C: Attorney fees

Family and Medical Leave

FMLA

FMLA

A: Over fifty employees

B: Provide up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave

C: for medical reason or to care for a spouse, child, or parent suffering with a serious medical condition.

D: The FMLA does not supersede any state or local law that provides more generous protection.

FMLA provides up to

12 weeks of unpaid leave

FMLA is for

Medical reasons or to care for a spouse, child, or parent suffering with a serious medical condition.

FMLA DOES NOT

supersede any state or local law that provides more generous protections.

What are FMLA Benefits and Protections:

A: Employers must continue worker's health care on same terms.

B: Employees must be restored to their original (or comparable) position (with nearly equivalent pay and benefits) unless they are "key" employees.

Violations Of FMLA:

A: Damages to compensate the employee for lost wages and benefits, denied compensations, and actual monetary losses.

B: Job reinstatement

C: Promotion (if one has been denied)

The Occupational Safety and Health Act

OSHA

OSHA

Safety standards that employers must follow.

OSHA states that Employers must

A: Post certain notices in the workplace

B; maintain specific records, and submit reports

Submitting a report

A: Whenever a work-related injury or disease occurs, employers must make reports directly to OSHA.

Employers are required to keep occupational injury and illness records for each employee IF

eleven or more employees.

Employees may file complaints of violation and:

A: cannot discharge an employee who files a complaint

B: Good faith refuses to work in high-risk area if bodily harm or death might result.

State Workers' Compensation Laws: Compensate workers injured on the job.

A: The existence of an employment relationship.

B: An accidental injury that occurred on the job or in the course of employment,

C: Regardless of fault.

Social Security: The social security act (OASDI)

Retirement, survivors and disability insurance

(OASDI)

A: Medicare

B: Federal Insurance Contributions Act

C: Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Medicare:

A: Federal Health insurance program administered by the Social Security Administration for people sixty-five years of age and older and for some under age sixty-five who are disabled.

Federal Insurance Contributions Act

FICA

(FICA)

A: Both employers and employees contribute to social security and Medicare

Employee Retirement Income Security Act

ERISA

(ERISA)

A: Does NOT require an employer to establish a pension plan but when a plan exists, ERISA provides standards for its management.

B: Vesting, which gives an employee a legal right to receive pension benefits when she or he stops working.

If there is a plan existing than ERISA can

Provide standards for its management.

Vesting

Which gives an employee a legal right to receive pension benefits when she or he stops working.

Federal Unemployment Tax Act

FUTA

(FUTA)

A: Unemployment compensation to eligible individuals who have lost their jobs.

B: Employers pay unemployment taxes at regular intervals. Proceeds from these taxes are then paid out to qualified unemployed workers.

Unemployment compensation are eligible to individuals who

have lost their jobs.

To be eligible for unemployment compensation, a worker must

A: Be willing and

B: Able to work

NO eligible if

A: Fired for misconduct or

B: Voluntarily left their jobs.

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act

COBRA

(COBRA)

A: Continue health-care coverage for a limited time after no longer eligible for a group health insurance plan.

B: Termination of employment may be voluntary or involuntary.

C: Fired for gross misconduct are excluded from protection

D: Workers pay the premiums for the continued coverage.

If the workers chooses COBRA coverage than

A: The employer is obligated to keep the policy active for up to eighteen months (twenty-nine months if the worker is disabled)

B: Coverage must be the same as that provided to the worker prior to the termination.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

HIPAA

(HIPAA)

A: Restrict the manner in which employers collect, use, and disclose the health information of employees and their families.

B: Employers must designate privacy officials

C: Distribute privacy notices and

D: Train employees to ensure that employees' health information is not disclosed to unauthorized parties.

E: HIPAA violations are subject to fines and criminal prosecution.

Affordable Care Act

Obamacare

(Obamacare)

A: Employers with fifty or more full-time employees must offer health-insurance benefits.

Employee Privacy Protection:

Employees of private employers have some privacy protection under tort law and state constitutions.

What does the Employee Privacy Protection do

A: Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

B: Courts typically hold that employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using an employer-provided communication system (such as e-mail)

Employee Polygraph Protection Act

Prohibits employers from requiring, suggesting, or requesting employees and jobs applicants to take lie-detector test.

Who are exempt from the prohibition of the polygraph act

A: Government employers at all levels

B: certain security service firms, and

C: companies that manufacture and distribute controlled substances.

Public Employers:

Government (Public) employers are constrained in drug testing by the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constituion.

Testing is allowed by statute for

Transportation workers

Private employers:

The Fourth Amendment does not apply to drug testing conducted by private employers. Many states have statutes that allow drug testing by private employers but restrict when and how the testing may be preformed.

Immigration Reform and Control Act

IRCA

(IRCA)

Makes it illegal to hire, recruit, or refer for a fee someone not authorized to work in the united states.

I-9 Employment Verification:

An employer must perform I-9 verifications for new hires, including those hired as "contractors" or "day workers" if they work under the employer's direct supervision.

Must be completed within ______ of commencement of employment

Three days

Documentation requirements

The Employer must declare, under penalty of perjury, that an employee produced documents establishing his or her identity and legal employability.

The penalties for not following the employment illegal rule

A: First offense - $2,200 for each unauthorized employee

B: Second offense - $5,000 per employee (!) Up to $11,000 for subsequent offenses.

C: "Pattern or Practice of Violations" are subject to criminal penalties.

I-551 Alien Registration Receipts for Companies:

Can only hire a noncitizen worker that is self-authorized (be a lawful permanent resident or have a valid temporary employment authorization document.)

A lawful permanent resident can prove his or her status to an employer via an

I-551 alien registration receipt, known as a green card, or a properly stamped foreign passport.

To gain authorization for hiring a foreign worker, an employer must show that

A: NO U.S. worker is qualified, willing, and able to take the job.

B: Any U.S. applicants who meet the stated job qualifications must be interviewed for the position.

H-1B Visa Program

To get the H-1Bvisa, the potential employee must be qualified in a "Specialty occupation", i.e., the individual has highly specialized knowledge and has attained a bachelor's or higher degree or its equivalent.

How long can H-1B visas can stay in the united states

Three to six years and can only work for the sponsoring employer.

Critics of the H-1B visas Program

Believes that sometimes employers use it to replace american workers with lower-paid foreign labor.

Labor certification

An employer who wants to submit an H-1B application must file a Labor Certification application (a form also known as ETA 9035).

H-2 Visas:

Provides entry for performing agricultural labor of a seasonal nature.

O Visas

Provides entry for persons who have "extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, educations, business or athletics which has been demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim."

L Visas

Allow a company foreign manager or executives to work inside the united states.

E visas

Permits the entry of certain foreign investors or entrepreneurs.

Norris-LaGuardia Act

Protect peaceful strikes by limiting the injunction power of federal courts.

National Labor Relation Act of 1935

NLRA

(NLRA)

Established the rights of employees to engage in collective bargaining and to strike.

Unfair Labor practices

A: Interference with the efforts of employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations or to engage in concerted activates for their mutual aid or protection.

B: An employer's domination of a labor organization or contribution of financial or other support to it.

Discrimination in

A: The hiring of or the awarding of tenure to employees for reason of union affiliation.

B: against employees for filing charges under the act or giving testimony under the act.

Refusal to bargain collectively with the duty designated representative of the employees is an act of unfair labor practice

True

The National Labor Relations Board:

Oversees union elections and to prevent employers from engaging in unfair and illegal union activates and unfair labor practices.

Good Faith Bargaining:

Under the NLRA, employers and unions have a duty to bargain in good faith. Bargaining over certain subjects is mandatory, and a party's refusal to bargain over these subjects is an unfair labor practice.