Category: Workplace Rights
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Pregnant workers have a federal right to job accommodations, and employers who refuse can be taken to court
A pregnant worker should not have to choose between a paycheck and a doctor’s advice to take it easier. Under a federal law now in force, most workers who are pregnant or recovering from childbirth have a right to reasonable accommodations on the job, and an employer that flatly refuses can end up in front…
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Misclassified as a 1099 contractor? You may be owed back overtime and minimum wage
Getting handed a 1099 at tax time can leave you feeling like you signed away your rights as an employee. You may not have. Whether you are truly an independent contractor or an employee who was labeled the wrong way turns on how you actually work, not on the form your company chose. And if…
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A mass layoff usually requires 60 days’ written notice, and workers left out can be owed up to 60 days’ pay
If your job disappears in a sudden round of cuts, you may have more rights than your employer let on. A federal law called the WARN Act often requires big companies to give workers 60 days of warning before a mass layoff or a plant closing, and when they skip that notice, the people left…
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Unemployment benefits are taxable, but you can have 10% withheld upfront
Losing a job is stressful enough without a surprise tax bill the following spring, yet that is exactly what catches many people who collect unemployment. The benefits feel like a lifeline, not a paycheck, so it is easy to forget that the federal government treats them as taxable income. There is a simple way to…
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A federal court has ordered four Spokane-area restaurants to pay $750,000 to 42 workers shorted on pay
When an employer agrees to pay back wages and then does not, the government can go to court and make it. That is what happened to a group of Washington restaurants, and the result is a federal order to pay $750,000 to 42 workers who were shorted on overtime and minimum wage. The case is…
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DC Water fired an older worker for a younger one and now owes $217,000 to settle a federal age-bias case
Losing a job in your fifties is hard enough without the suspicion that your age was the real reason. A federal case against one of the country’s larger public utilities put a dollar figure on that exact situation, and the number is nearly $217,000. For any worker over 40, the settlement is a plain reminder…
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$2 million settles harassment claims at Thomas Keller’s Las Vegas Bouchon
Families encountering the EEOC’s Las Vegas restaurant harassment settlement need more than a large number. They need the exact group covered, the present legal status and the next useful step for the EEOC’s Las Vegas restaurant harassment settlement. The current primary record provides that map for the EEOC’s Las Vegas restaurant harassment settlement. The allegations…
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$5 million settles Battelle’s denial of vaccine exemptions to over 100 workers
The financial consequence of Battelle Energy Alliance’s vaccine-accommodation agreement is easier to miss than the large number. An official source now fixes the amount, date and status for Battelle Energy Alliance’s vaccine-accommodation agreement. Reading the official pieces together shows what a consumer can do about Battelle Energy Alliance’s vaccine-accommodation agreement and what remains unresolved. The…
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$2.6 million goes to women an Alabama recycler refused to hire
A new primary record puts an Alabama hiring case involving a recycling plant into practical household terms. Timing, eligibility and remedy determine whether an Alabama hiring case involving a recycling plant changes a real budget. The official details of an Alabama hiring case involving a recycling plant are now clear enough to verify. The consent…
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An Illinois headlight plant denied pregnant workers their lifting limits, a federal suit says
A lifting restriction can determine whether a pregnant factory employee keeps earning a paycheck or is pushed off the schedule. Federal officials say an Illinois automotive-lighting manufacturer refused such limits for a class of workers. The lawsuit is pending, and the company’s liability has not been decided. Four plants are named in the federal allegations…
