MGMT 311 Exam 4 - FLASHCARDS - Chapter 20 part 1
What is employment at will?
When a person provides services to another for compensation without the duration of the relationship specified
What is Application of the Employment at Will Doctrine?
the employment relationship may be terminated by either party at any time and for any reason, subject to certain exceptions.
True or false: an employee can even be fired for a bad reason or no reason at all?
True. For example, your boss doesn’t like how your lunch smells
What is the diference between employment at will vs employment under contract?
Duration is main factor. With a contract, you have a duration of time
What is embesslement?
Stealing from the company
What are exceptions to employment at will?
Implied contract
Implied Covenant of Good Faith
Public Policy
What is implied contract?
Implied contracts are guarantees of continued employment. Employees are not fired without cause
True or false: implied contracts can be oral or written?
TRUE
What is an example of an implied contract?
Employer says you will have a job in this company as long as you do a good job.
True or false: with an implied contract, employees are not fired without cause (for no reason at all)?
TRUE
If a worker brings a wrongful discharge case, and they argue there was no expressed contract, employees can argue based on the employer’s actions that there was an implied contract. If they can prove that, they can win a wrongful discharge case
.
What is Implied Covenant of Good Faith?
some states hold that the employment relationship creates an implied promise to act in good faith. So, if the employer fires an employee for an arbitrary or unjustified reason, it may be considered bad faith.
What is an example of implied covenent of good faith?
If someone is fired because of a piece of clothing or a lunch that smells bad
What applies when the employer fires a worker for reasons that violate a fundamental public policy of the state?
Public policy
What are policies that are good for society as a whole?
Public policy
Where do you find public policy?
In the laws
What happens if an employer is asking an employee to commit a crime, and the employee refuses to commit the crime, and they get fired?
Wrongful discharge
What is when an employee tells a government official, upper management, or the press that her employer has engaged in some unsafe or illegal activity?
Whistleblowing
What only applies to federal employees blowing the whistle to report illegal activities of the government?
Federal Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989?
True or false: most states have whistleblower statutes to protect employees who are fired for blowing the whistle?
TRUE
What method does Texas use for protecting employees fired for blowing the whistle?
Texas selects pieces of the workforce (types of workers), and creates a statute around that type of worker
What is the Public Employee Whistleblower Act?
Any level of public worker in Texas is the employee. That worker has to prove illegal activities they have observed to appropriate authorities in good faith
Are government workers for the state of Texas, public employees?
Yes
What is the Nursing Home Workers Act?
Texas statute where employee’s job is protected when reporting suspected abuse of the elderly
What is wrongful discharge?
- The employer has fired the employee in violation of the employment contract between the parties; or
- The employer has fired the employee in violation of a statute or common law.
What is insurance that provides cash benefits and/or medical care for workers who are injured or become ill as a direct result of their job?
Worker’s compensation
Is an employer allowed to fire an employee who makes a claim for worker’s compensation?
No
What is the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA)?
Addresses child labor laws, minimum wages, 40 hour work week limit, and overtime pay
What were the three age groups for child labor laws?
Children under Fourteen
Children ages Fourteen & Fifteen
Children ages Sixteen & Seventeen
What are the labor rules for children under fourteen under the FLSA?
Very little work is possible. Children can work in certain things like agriculture, entertainment, newspaper delivery
What are the labor rules for children ages fourteen & fifteen under the FSLA?
allowed to work, but not in hazardous occupations. There are restrictions on days and hours
True or false: hazard occupations include meat packing?
TRUE
Would a grocery store like HEB hire someone who is 15?
No because even if they wouldn’t have them work in a hazardous condition, they don’t want to deal with day and hour restrictions
What are the labor rules for children ages sixteen & seventeen under the FSLA?
All day and hour restrictions go away, but you still can’t work in hazardous occupation
Would a grocery store like HEB hire someone who is 16?
Yes because the employer doesn’t have to worry about day and hour restrictions. They wouldn’t have to work in a hazardous condition.
What is the federal minumum wage?
$7.25 an hour
True or false: states can set a higher minimum wage?
TRUE
How are tipped workers paid?
direct wages of $2.13 an hour plus tips must equal federal minimum wage for every hour worked
True or false: for every hour worked, tipped workers take their wage plus the tips to equal $7.25?
TRUE
What is overtime?
any employee who agrees to work more than forty hours per week must be paid no less than one and a half times his regular pay for all hours over forty.
True or false: overtime is typically time and a half?
TRUE
What are exempt employees to overtime? Where employer is not required to pay overtime?
Executives
Administrative
Professionals
Outside salespeople
Those creating computer code
Can the employer can pay overtime to whoever they want to?
Yes
Employees making what dollar amounts are exempt from overtime pay?
We treat exempt those who make more than $684 per week or $35,568 per year.
If an business professional (exempt category) in a company is making more than $684 per week or $35,568 per year, is their employer required to pay them overtime?
No
What is the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA)?
Federal family leave law. 1. Employers who have 50 or more employees must provide employees with up to 12 weeks unpaid family or medical leave during any 12-month period.
2. During the leave, the employer must continue the worker’s health-care coverage.
3. Employee is guaranteed to return to the same or a comparable position after leave.
Under the Family Medical Leave Act, What must employers who have 50 or more employees provide?
Employers who have 50 or more employees must provide employees with up to 12 weeks unpaid family or medical leave during any 12-month period
Under the Family Medical Leave Act, what must the employer do during the employee’s medical leave?
The employer must continue the worker’s health-care coverage.
Is the employee guaranteed to return to the same or a comparable position after their medical leave?
Yes
What is the key employee exception?
top 10 percent of wage earners at a company
What are requirements of the employee to be entitled to medical leave?
Must have worked at least 1 year with the company.
Must have worked at least 1250 hours in the preceding year.
If someone has worked at a company for a year, are they entitled to the 12 week medical leave?
Only if they have also completed 1250 hours the year they have been there
What are situations in which an employee can take family or medical leave for?
- To care for a newborn within one year of birth. Every employee is entitled to this, not just women
- To care for adopted or foster child within 1 year of placement
- To care for employee’s child, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition. No siblings, cousins, or step children
- When an employee has a serious health condition making them unable to perform essential functions of their job
True or false: an employee take family or medical leave to care for a newborn within one year of birth?
TRUE
Are just women allowed to take medical leave to care for a baby?
No. All employees are allowed to do this
True or false: an employee can take family or medical leave to care for adopted or foster child within 1 year of placement?
TRUE
True or false: an employee can take family or medical leave to care for their child, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition?
TRUE
Can an employee take family or medical leave to take care of a sibling or step child with a serious health condition?
No
True or false: an employee can take family or medical leave if they themselves have a serious health condition making them unable to perform essential functions of their job?
TRUE
Can an employee take family or medical leave if urgent circumstances arise out of the fact that spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on active duty?
Yes
How much time of leave does an employee get if a family member is in the military?
get up to 26 weeks in 12- month period to care for family member.
What was Ballard v. Chicago Park District (7th Cir. 2014)?
Ballard requests FMLA leave for a trip to Las Vegas as an “end of life” goal for dying mother was protected – care not restricted to a particular place, like “home”
Does the law specify where we physically need to be to care for someone with a serious health condition?
No
What was the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970?
provides for specific standards that an employer must meet in an attempt to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for employees.
What is the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)?
sets forth standards, makes inspections, and enforces the Act.
What enforces the Occupational Safety & Health Act?
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
What conducts research on safety & health problems and recommends standards for OSHA to adopt?
National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health
What is an independent agency that handles appeals from actions taken by OSHA?
Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission
Can OSHA compliance officers inspect facilities?
Yes
Can an OSHA employee report OSHA violations?
Yes
Can an employee of OSHA be fired for refusing, in good faith, to work in a high-risk area if bodily harm or death might result?
No
Must an employer report all work-related injuries and diseases to OSHA?
Yes
If an employee is killed in a work-related accident or 3 or more workers are hospitalized in one incident, what must happen?
the employer must notify OSHA within 8 hours or will be fined, and an inspection of the premises is mandatory
True or false: workers compensation laws are state laws?
TRUE
What are requirements for receiving worker’s compensation?
Must have an employment relationship.
Worker’s injury must have been “accidental.”
Worker’s injury must have occurred on the job or in the course of employment.
True or false: Under workers compensation, receiving worker’s compensation benefits bars the employee from filing ordinary tort lawsuits for injuries caused by the employer’s negligence?
TRUE
Can an employee sue the employer who intentionally injures them?
Yes
What are forms of worker compensation?
Medical reimbursement, lost wages, lump sums for loss of function/life, vocational retraining
What is HIPAA?
(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). Privacy law that makes your medical information private
There is nothing in HIPAA that keeps an employer from discriminating against you for your medical information?
Yes
