The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has historically been a “union agency,” but it is now beginning to expand beyond that realm into non-union workplaces.

October 1st was the official start of the 2012-13 Supreme Court term. While there are not many employment law cases on the docket, there is one case, Vance v. Ball State University, that we are watching closely. This Supreme Court case will impact other harassment cases.

The takeaway from this is simple but very important: an employer cannot automatically disregard an employee’s FMLA request simply because he/she is not FMLA-eligible at the time the request is made. This does not simply apply to pregnancy situations; it applies to any situation involving foreseeable FMLA leave.

The point of the following cautionary tales is to help people understand that if they have an employment issue, they need an employment lawyer.

The point here is that if your company has a no-fault attendance policy, which is fine to do, there must be exceptions for FMLA and ADA related reasons for absences. Failing to do so or failing to apply the policy correctly can and will lead to liability.

Covered employers must grant eligible employees up to a total of 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period (the “12” in the title). There are 4 (yup, the title again) methods for determining that 12-month period. The constant, regardless of the method chosen, is that the method used must, must, must be communicated to employees.

As we touched on in a previous article, certification is an important concept to understand in the FMLA process. It can be the difference between an absence being covered or not covered by the Family & Medical Leave Act.

We spent the last article providing an overview of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) – who’s covered, who’s not, and where to find additional resources made available by the Department of Labor. But as an employer, what are your basic responsibilities when your company is covered by the Family Medical Leave Act?

Although we discuss the Family & Medical Leave Act on our website, we thought we would provide a second source of quick facts on the FMLA and provide links to some quick and easy-to-understand resources for anyone looking for more FMLA information.

Not handling the background check process correctly or misusing the information contained within the background check, also called a consumer report, can lead to liability for employers.