Worksheet 20.1: Employment at Will & Wages, Hours, and Layoffs & Family and Medical Leave

1. Match the term with the correct definition.

-Whistleblowing: behavior where an employee informs a government authority, upper manager or the media that the employer is engaged in unsafe or illegal activities.

-Wrongful Discharge: the termination of an employment relationship by the employer in violation of law or contract.

-A common law doctrine where either party to an employment relationship may terminate it at any time for any reason.

2. Select the three exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine

b. Public policy exceptions

c. Tort exceptions

d. Contract exceptions

3. The federal government began to regulate wages and working hours of employees ___ .

in the 1930's

4. Which of the answer choices does not relate to the regulation of wages and working hours?

d. The National Recovery Act

5. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not:

d. restrict the power of federal courts issuing injunctions against unions.

6. Children under the age of ___ are allowed to do only certain types of work, such as delivering newspapers and working for their parents. Children ages fourteen and fifteen cannot work in ___ jobs, and there are numerous restrictions related to how many ___ they may work. Youths between the ages of sixteen and eighteen cannot be employed in hazardous jobs, but they are not subject to the restrictions placed on fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds.

14, hazardous, hours

7. When a state has a minimum wage that is different than the federal minimum wage, employees are entitled to the ___ wage.

higher

8. An employee who works more than 40 hours per week must be paid no less than ___ times the regular rate of pay for all hours over 40, unless that employee is ___ .

1.5, exempt

9. One of the major federal laws dealing with layoffs is the

b. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)

10. The WARN act requires employers with more than fifty full-time workers to provide sixty days' notice before laying off one-third or more of the employees or closing a plant.

a. True

11. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is an exclusive federal law that supersedes or preempts any other state or local law that provides more generous leave policies.

b. False

12. The Family Medical Leave Act provides up to ___ weeks within a 12-month period for an approved family or medical reason.

12

13. With respect to a worker's health-care coverage, when an employee takes FMLA leave, the employer:

b. must continue the coverage on the same terms as if the employee had continued to work.

14. An employer that violates the FMLA may be required to provide damages to ___ the employee for lost wages and benefits, denied compensation, and actual monetary losses (such as the cost of providing care for a family member), job ___ , or promotion, if a promotion has been ___ .

compensate, reinstatement, denied