ETH321_Week3Discussion_post2_2023

I found an interesting article that involves employment law, specifically FMLA for this

week's discussion topic. According to the US Department of Labor, FMLA, better known as

Family and Medical Leave Act, entitles an eligible employee to take unpaid, job-protected

leave for family and medical reasons. This case that I came across involved an employee

who was terminated from his job when his employer found out that he took a vacation to

Mexico while he was on medical leave of absence from work. The employee underwent foot

surgery and received a medical certification from his surgeon that he would need 4-6 weeks

of FMLA leave with a guideline of limited activities post-operatively for recovery. While

recovering, he asked his company if it was ok to go back to work early from his leave of

in his paycheck, and was not getting what he though he should be getting paid while on this

leave of absence, he contacted HR. From there, HR discovered he took a trip while on this

FMLA leave of absence, they launched an investigation and ultimately fired the employee.

The employee sued his former employer, and the case went to trial. As a result, the state

high court of Massachusetts found that the employers made a knee-jerk decision without

reviewing the facts, including review of all medical information provided by the employee

from his medical providers, stating what the employee can and cannot do while on FMLA

leave of absence. Therefore awarding the employee $1.3 million in damages. Currently in

the United States, the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr as stated on the Department of

Labor website. This is the amount of pay for an employee that is employed by a business

that is not in a state with additional minimum wage laws. Should a state have minimum

wage laws, then the employee would be paid whichever is the higher amount. For example,

in Ohio, the minimum wage law has the current wage per hour set at $9.30 for employers

that have an annual gross of over $342,000. Those that work a minimum wage paying job

will be paid at the state rate opposed to the federal rate. In recent years the rate of pay for

minimum wage, whether it be the federal or state rate, has been an issue. As stated in an

MSNBC news article, the issue at hand and the question more often being asked is, if the

minimum wage pay is sufficient and "fair" for citizens to live a life outside of poverty

without having to work 100+ hours a week. In 2021 there was talk of the President enacting

the COVID pandemic. Ownership had an addendum added to our handbook stating that it

would be a requirement to receive all vaccines available in order to remain employed. This

covered us in the event of retaliation from an employee also. Employees were given a

company policy. Since we are a small privately owned company no laws were broken or

even stretched. I am not saying that I agreed with the decision even though we are a medical

based child care facility but it was what was needed to be done in order to keep our doors

open to be able to provide the proper care for our patients in need. In April 2021, Illinois

amended its Human Rights Act to limit the decisions that employers can make about the

conviction records of employees.

an employer to use a “conviction record” as a basis for adverse employment decisions,

unless:

employees for their sexual orientation, specifically for identifying as homosexual or

transgender. While the Eleventh Circuit attempted to dismiss the suit, the Second and Sixth

Circuits found that the cases that involved could not be dismissed and proceeded further

(Schwartz, 2021).

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is prohibited to discriminate against

applicants and current employees based off of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

This includes the failure, refusal, discipline, and discharge towards any employed individual

or individuals seeking employment (Civil Rights Act, 1964). According to Schwartz (2021),

the court in this specific case held the position that Title VII extends past gender and sex and

As a result, the employment law of Title VII allowed the court to rule in favor of the victims

and has now paved the way for higher court resolution by prompting states to enact

subsequent legislation instead of leaving the power in the hands of local governments

(Schwartz, 2021). There are many ongoing issues in employment law in the United States.

As governing and organizational bodies oversee many laws that have been created there are

still daily operating practices that continue to discriminate against individuals who could

have one of many diverse differences that are not “social norms” of society operate

conditioning. One major ongoing employment law is discrimination and harassment in a

workplace environment. “The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

based on his or her ethnicity, race, color, sex, or national origin. Indirect way means to

harass or slowly remove the person from the job based on race, color, sex, or national origin

of the individual. The EEOC protects all such diverse types of people. No matter the cultural

diversity everyone should be given equal rights and equal positions irrespective of color,

race, national origin, or sex says this civil rights act.This civil rights employment act was

applied in the resolution in the following way:

·Title VII makes it unlawful to discriminate the people's employment based on race, color,

national origin, or sex when recruiting, hiring, training, or promotion

·Title VII makes it unlawful to discriminate against people based on race, color, national

or other professional service

based on the person who complained about the discrimination and harassment, filed a charge

of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

Court of the United States held that firing individuals because of their sexual orientation or

transgender status violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition on

discrimination because of sex. “The Court reached its holding by focusing on the plain text

of Title VII. As the Court explained, ‘discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender

come back to work, I was injured been at the hospital all night. But I was advised I would be

fired if I didn't. Well, I ended up getting fired, there was no way I could face the area let

alone have people looking at me and asking what happened as my injuries were visible.

As I grew older and then became employed by a law firm did I understand the worker's

compensation laws in IL. At the time of the incident, I was not aware I was protected if hurt

on the job. I was entitled to file for workers' compensation as the employer should have been

paying into that for coverage of his employees.

For this week’s topic, I would like to discuss the food and beverage industry. Its overlooked,

under paid, and under rated, and cheated. I want to speak about what I know, what I have

seen, and what I have experienced. Working over the period of breaks, not being paid the

correct amount of money that was talked about upon hire, when it comes to clocking in, to

the fifth hour of work, to taking your 30min break, to when you clock off, and still have

work to finish known as your side work/obligations in food and beverage. You tell me, does

that sound fair?

There are a lot of issues to cover in the food and beverage industry. I like would like to

my control, unless you have a lot of people on staff and not worried about paying them.

There is more to the food and beverage industry beside taking a food order and making a

drink.

As someone who has been overworked and underpaid I know the anger of working overtime

and not being compensated. A big issue that has always been there but is starting to be fix

now is overtime pay and the limit on the amount of overtime a week. Every state is different

get away with it fairly easy. For instance, one week I worked 60 hours for a company. I was

only paid overtime for 12 hours. They said that because one of the 5 days of the work week

was a holiday 8 of my overtime hours went to pay for that day. That made no since to me as

I was supposed to get my paid holiday as well as the additional hours I worked.

There is however a new law that goes into affect on July 1, 2022. This law states that and

employer that violates the states overtime laws “shall be liable to the employee for the

applicable remedies, damages, or other relief available under the [FLSA].” This means

that if they are found liable they will be responsable for my extra pay as well as other

compensations. This is a very big deal to Virginia residents.

The United States has come a long way over the past century, but there’s still work to be

done... Much of women’s progress is thanks to RBG and her brave and tireless advocacy.

Many years ago, women were treated as property, owned by men. Only 102 years ago (in

fighting gender discrimination. One example of this is her influence in the ratification of the

Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which identifies pregnant women as a protected class. In the

past, women could have been fired, demoted, or otherwise harassed for becoming, or

at Harvard Law in 1956, she was famously asked why she was taking the place of a man.

After she transferred to and graduated from Columbia, at the top of her class, she could

barely get a job. And when she finally landed a teaching job at Rutgers School of Law in

1963, she hid her pregnancy under her mother-in-law’s baggy clothes until her contract was

renewed.

work status; no one cares. Everyone states that there are laws and organizations to help

protect the individual that is being trespassed however when an individual brings the

positive enthusiastic morale-boosting employee engagement activist. This is how I fight the

fight. I like being a leader and leading by example. My recent problem has been unable to

other cultures are in other positions like HR and assistants: don't make the company diverse,