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In FMLA matters, things that may seem self-evident are not always so. For example, as a recent federal appeals case demonstrated, even if an employer granted FMLA leave to an employee, that employee may not necessarily have been entitled to the leave. If they were not, then they cannot pursue a case of retaliation or interference. If you have questions about entitlement to FMLA leave or the required elements of a retaliation or interference case, be sure to get knowledgeable answers by talking to an experienced Atlanta FMLA lawyer.

L.H., the employee, worked as an investigator for a university in Texas, tasked with “investigating allegations of harassment, discrimination, sexual misconduct and retaliation.” Due to mental health issues, the investigator requested FMLA leave from February 17, 2023, to May 1, 2023. On the day the investigator returned to work, her supervisor and the university’s head of HR met with her to tell her that the university was terminating her employment.

The investigator subsequently sued for interference with FMLA rights and retaliation. According to the investigator, the university fired her in retaliation for taking leave. According to the university, it fired the investigator due to performance problems it discovered while she was on leave.

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Restaurant work is often fast-paced and can be hectic. Providing quality service to customers requires a high degree of teamwork and can demand that workers wear many “hats.” This may potentially create some gray areas when it comes to tip pools. If you have questions about who should — and should not — participate in a tip pool, you should consult with a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

One example of this comes from a letter to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) from earlier this year. In the scenario, the business was a “quick service restaurant.” At the restaurant, employees worked on a line preparing and assembling the food the customers picked out, then the customers paid for their food at the end of the line before finding a table in the dining area. (Fast-casual Mexican establishments like Chipotle and Qdoba are examples of a similar type of quick service restaurant.)

At the restaurant, all team members received a cash wage at or above the applicable minimum wage. The restaurant nevertheless allowed customers the option to leave a tip, either on their credit cards or in a tip jar. The restaurant subsequently pooled the tips and split the pool among its employees.

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Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) retaliation litigation serves an essential purpose by providing recourse to workers who were unfairly subjected to adverse employment actions for engaging in protected activities, such as requesting or taking FMLA leave. Whether you are an employee who has encountered this type of mistreatment or you are an employer who has taken an adverse action against an employee for a perfectly valid and legitimate reason, it is crucial to understand how to proceed properly in an FMLA retaliation action. That includes retaining an experienced Atlanta FMLA retaliation lawyer who can help you navigate the procedural details and legal nuances of this area of the law.

One of the most essential parts of any FMLA retaliation case is causation—the assessment of whether an employee’s protected FMLA activities caused their employer to punish them. Proving or disproving causation can be vital to the success of your case, and the standard for causation can vary based on where you litigate, as a recent retaliation case shows.

D. D.-S., the employee, worked for a local government in Louisiana from 2008 to 2020. In November 2019, she took a week of sick leave. Immediately after that, she requested FMLA leave to care for her ailing husband. The employee’s 12 weeks of FMLA leave expired in late February, and the employer declined to offer an extension.

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One of the thorniest areas of Fair Labor Standards Act law concerns tipped employees. Disputes involving tipped workers are among the most frequent to arise. One area where difficulties may emerge is when an employer establishes a mandatory tip pool. While some workers, like servers, might obviously be included in a tip pool, other employees’ jobs might make their status less clear. If you are an employee or an employer with a tip pooling question, be sure you get the knowledgeable information you need by speaking to a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

A recent Wage and Hour Division (WHD) opinion letter is a reminder that, when it comes to mandatory tip pools, the key is not just what task an employee does, but the context in which they perform it.

The employer was a seafood restaurant that offered freshly shucked oysters from an oyster bar. At this restaurant, the employer stationed the oyster shuckers behind the eatery’s bar alongside its bartenders, where they engaged “with customers by sharing and detailing oyster offerings, making suggestions regarding the oyster offerings, and fielding other questions about the different options, while preparing the oysters for and in front of the customers.”

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The Fair Labor Standards Act does not authorize class actions brought by groups of plaintiffs. Instead, the FLSA has a unique procedure under which groups of employees may join in civil litigation — the collective action. One of the critical crossroads in a potential collective action is the juncture where the judge decides whether or not to issue notice of the suit to similarly situated employees (and thereby give them the option to join the suit). With several new federal appeals court decisions in recent months and years, the standard for when to authorize notice is evolving. If you have questions about your FLSA matter and the viability of collective status, you should get in touch with an Atlanta collective action lawyer.

One of the more recent developments in this area occurred in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in August.

The employee in that case, M.R., was a woman in her 50s who worked in a sales capacity for an Indiana-headquartered pharmaceutical company. When the employer allegedly passed her over for a managerial role (in favor of a much younger, less experienced candidate), the woman launched an age discrimination lawsuit. Specifically, she contended that her rejection was part of the employer’s pattern of passing over older candidates in favor of promoting younger, less qualified ones.

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A lumber mill worker’s recent success in federal court represents a noteworthy outcome for multiple reasons. For the worker, it recognizes that an employer may be liable for retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act, both by terminating the worker and by subsequently refusing to rehire them. On the employer side, it demonstrates just how crucial it is to document carefully why your business makes the decisions it does regarding hiring, firing, and rehiring, and how this is even more critical if your business is dealing with a worker who has engaged in statutorily protected activities in the past. Whether you are a worker or an employer, an experienced Atlanta FMLA retaliation lawyer can provide essential answers to questions you have about this issue.

The worker, E.B., worked for two years, from 2015 to 2017. According to the employee’s lawsuit, he “worked in every department … without complaint or discipline.” The employer allegedly fired him in December 2017 after he requested and took FMLA leave to care for his disabled wife.

E.B. sued for FMLA retaliation in 2019. K.B., a coworker at the mill, submitted a sworn statement in support of E.B. as part of that lawsuit.

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The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has triggered strong reactions from both supporters and critics alike. However, the reaction of employers has not been even-handed. Employees perceived as making negative comments about the shooting have faced intense blowback; some have even lost their jobs. Meanwhile, those celebrating Mr. Kirk’s controversial positions have faced no consequences at all. The disciplining of employees who appear not to support Kirk may lead one to wonder: Can employers legally discipline employees for their personal opinions or social media posts? While some may have that ability, others may have crossed a constitutional line and engaged in an impermissible violation of the employee’s free speech rights, especially if the employer is a public one. If you or someone you know is caught up in the controversy, an experienced Atlanta employment lawyer can provide you, as a public employee, with crucial advice and advocacy to ensure your First Amendment rights are protected.

Private employers are generally not restricted by the First Amendment. Thus, the majority of those employed by private employers have no free speech protections at work. These workers remain employed only as long as the employer wants them to be, and the employer can fire them for any reason or no reason at all, including its disapproval of their online or social media activity.

Public employees, on the other hand, enjoy First Amendment protections. These employees include public school teachers. Adam Goldstein, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy organization, told WRAL in Raleigh, N.C., that, in general, “a public school teacher in their own time, posting on their social media that’s their own personal account about things that aren’t related to school, is going to be protected by the First Amendment.”

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Here in Georgia, workers who experience discrimination based on specific statutorily defined characteristics, like, for example, age and sexual orientation, are protected by federal law. If you are a worker who has experienced this kind of discrimination at work (or are an employer facing such an allegation), it pays to retain an experienced Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer to handle your case. The law requires a worker to clear certain legal hurdles if his case is to defeat employer motions (like a motion to dismiss or motion for summary judgment). A skilled advocate can be instrumental in ensuring that your pleadings are in order, whether you are the worker or the employer.

A recent workplace discrimination case from southwest Georgia illustrates the risks that a worker assumes when proceeding without counsel.

B.H., the employee, worked as a career development coordinator at a public university in Albany, Georgia. The coordinator was 40 years old, gay, and Black, and his “protected characteristics” allegedly placed a discriminatory target on him.

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Employers must tread carefully when disciplining (or firing) workers who have sought to invoke their Family and Medical Leave Act rights. Employers may be vulnerable to liability for FMLA interference or retaliation if they cannot demonstrate that the employee’s exercise of FMLA played no role in the decision-making that yielded the adverse action. On the other hand, employers who have clear evidence that FMLA was not a factor (such as an employer that made an internal decision to punish or fire a worker before the employee requested FMLA leave) need not fear proceeding with their intended adverse action. Whether you are an employer or an employee, the keys often lie with carefully documenting everything and promptly retaining a skilled Atlanta FMLA lawyer.

An FMLA case from here in Metro Atlanta is a good illustration.

The employer was an Alpharetta-based business marketing firm. The employee was one of its project managers. About five years into her tenure, the project manager’s new supervisor placed her on a Performance Improvement Plan (which is a type of formal discipline that establishes a deadline for an employee to improve deficiencies in their work).

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One area of wage-and-hour law where employers can easily run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act is overtime pay… or, more specifically, underpayment of overtime. If an employer does not correctly assess the forms of compensation that go into calculating a worker’s regular rate of pay, then that employer runs the risk of underpaying the worker when they earn overtime compensation. An experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can help provide you with reliable answers to the overtime compensation questions you have.

A federal investigation of a North Georgia plastic fabrication company revealed one place where employers can go wrong: bonuses.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigated a Gainesville-area employer whose records showed that more than 700 workers received overtime compensation sums that were less than what they were entitled to.

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