Articles and Blogs

In an interesting federal district court case currently awaiting jury trial in Tennessee, the plaintiff claims that the termination of his employment at a Tennessee hospital was in retaliation for exercising his rights under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). The hospital that formerly employed him asked the court to grant summary judgment, arguing... READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division has updated its FMLA forms in order to make them more usable and streamlined after receiving substantial input from employers, industry associations, individual employees, worker advocacy groups, law firms and other interested members of the public. The DOL also announced that it would be... READ MORE

Just as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) went into effect on April 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued its “Temporary Rule: Paid Leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act” (“Temporary Rule.”) This Temporary Rule was published in the Federal Register on Monday, April 6, 2020, and provides some... READ MORE

On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, President Trump signed the Emergency Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201) into law. Among other things, the new law creates the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act and the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, each of which creates excused time off and paid leave for certain employees dealing... READ MORE

States and the federal government are currently expanding laws intended to protect health care workers against workplace violence or raise the penalties for causing harm to health care workers. Workplace Violence Workers in health care settings often face the risk of workplace violence as a result of their interaction with patients and clients. While... READ MORE

Two recent opinion letters by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) interpret the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) to require that whenever an employee takes leave for an FMLA-qualifying reason, the employer must designate such leave as FMLA leave, even if the employee would prefer to “save... READ MORE

A recent decision from a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin held that the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) claim brought by the former employee of an assisted living center could not be dismissed. The outcome and the facts are instructive for other health care employers. The former employee of the assisted living facility,... READ MORE

They’re at it again! On August 28, 2018, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued six opinion letters. This was the second batch of opinion letters from the Wage and Hour Division in a matter of months. The Wage and Hour Division, which hadn’t published new opinion letters since 2010, previously issued... READ MORE

On September 5, 2018, the Michigan Legislature voted to approve the Earned Sick Time Act (the “Act”), the Midwest’s first statewide paid sick and safe time law.[1] The Act requires employers to provide employees with earned sick time, up to 72 hours per year, for certain covered reasons, such as mental or physical illness... READ MORE

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recently issued three new opinion letters, the first new opinion letters published since 2010. Opinion letters are, according to the Department of Labor, “an official, written opinion by the Wage and Hour Division of how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by an employer,... READ MORE