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Archive for the ‘Employment Law’ Category

Finishing up the summer series of some of the basics of Connecticut employment law, I turn back to a wage & hour topic that comes up much more than you might think.

Connecticut’s wage payment laws (including Conn. Gen. Stat. 31-71b) are quite clear: Employees must be paid wages on a weekly basis.  In addition, the employees must be paid within 8 days of the close of a pay period.

In practice, this means that employers typically have a pay period that runs either Sunday to Saturday or Monday to Sunday.

Upon the close of the pay period, the employer collects the time sheets, calculates overtime, and then "runs" the payroll.  For many employers, they can they make payments on Thursday or Friday (for the prior week.)

While that is the general rule, the law also allows employers to apply for a waiver of that requirement with the Department of Labor (Conn. Gen. Stat. 31-71i). 

For approval of a bi-weekly payroll system, the Department has an easy online form that employers can fill out here. 

For anything further, a letter is required.  Semi-monthly and monthly payment of wages are not looked on favorably by the Department of Labor so employers must make a fairly compelling reason for that request.  

And what is you’re one of those employers that hasn’t been following the rules to date? Work with an attorney or the Department of Labor to get into compliance as soon as possible.  That may mean asking for approval retroactively or changing the system of pay that you already have.

Ive written on lactation and sexual harassment policies I didnt anticipate the opportunity to discuss both in the same article. As reported in the Washington Post, the Library of Congress recently settled a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by one of its librarians. The librarian alleged that the former Chief of the Law Library for the Library of Congress sexually harassed her and other librarians. Among the specific allegations were that he made remarks about female staffers bodies and informed some hed tasted human breast milk.

So much material here, where to start . . . Lets get the HR lesson out of the way: According to her complaint, the Library of Congress conducted an investigation, found him responsible for inappropriate behavior in 2007, but did nothing about it after which he escalated his behavior. NEVER EVER conduct an internal investigation, conclude that sexual harassment occurred, and do nothing about it. Its worse than not investigating at all.

Now, for other interesting pieces of this story. If true, his actions would be inappropriate in any workplace. Context does matter, though, and some industries and workplaces have different environments than others. The alleged harasser has to know, or have reason to know, his behavior was unwelcome. Take Hooters, for example. It may be harder for a waitress at Hooters to show that harassing conduct was unwelcome. Although the on Undercover Boss, we learned that Hooters’ CEO was shocked to find that his waitresses were treated in a degrading fashion, I, for one, was not.

If I were to pick any workplace, in which I would assume such comments were NOT welcome, it would be a library. The LIBRARY OF CONGRESS more than any other library, in THE LAW LIBRARY. Ive spent time in that library and can tell you that you get looked at sideways for turning the newspaper pages too loudly. The very thought of the Library Chief making sexually inappropriate comments in that environment is wrong on so many levels.

And as far as tasting human breast milk? I read in People Magazine (in between reading law review articles and scholarly blogs) about this guy who makes cheese and other tasty recipes with his wifes breast milk. Somehow, I imagine when Mr. Library Chief said hed tasted breast milk, it wasnt in Chef Dans cheese.

Long-time readers of the blog are no doubt aware of my role as a delegate from Connecticut to the ABA House of Delegates. I’ll be reporting from that gathering in the upcoming days. If you’d like to follow the goings on of the ABA Annual Meeting, I’ll be tweeting about it on various account names.

• You can always follow me @danielschwartz (twitter.com/danielschwartz)
• But through an arrangement with the American Bar Association, I will be tweeting from the floor of the House next Monday and Tuesday under the ABA’s account: @abaesq (twitter.com/abaesq)
• And, to top matters, I’ll also be reporting for the Connecticut Bar Association at various times on matters relevant to Connecticut under the CBA’s account: @ctbar (twitter.com/ctbar)

There are a number of terrific programs set up during the next few days on topics such as social media and the latest in employment law. I’ll try to provide a post or two with some of the highlights.

In the meantime, this morning I appeared on NPR’s terrific show: Where We Live. You can listen online to the interview here.  During the interview, we talked about workplace violence prevention issues. Unfortunately, there are no sure solutions to eliminate the threat of workplace violence but if you’re eager to take some steps, you can check some of my prior posts for resources.

Lastly, next week, I’ll be speaking to various town officials in the Hartford area about the legal issues surrounding the use of social media.  The meeting is by invite-only but I’ll share some of my thoughts afterwards.

August tends to be a slow time for employment law but stay tuned over the next few days: I’ve got a few guest posts coming up during my meetings.