U.S. Employment Law & Regulations Flashcards
Workplace
Amends Executive Orders 11478 and 11246 to include gender identify and sexual orientation
Executive Order 13672
Concept that jobs filled primarily by women that require skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions comparable to similar jobs filled primarily by men should have the same classifications and salaries
Comparable worth
U.S. act that requires some employers to give a minimum of 60 days’ notice if a plant is to close or if mass layoffs will occur.
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act
Primary job duties that a qualified individual must be able to perform, either with or without accommodation.
Essential functions
U.S act that frees employers who use third parties to conduct workplace investigations from the consent and disclosure requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in certain cases.
Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act)
U.S. act that imposed regulations on internal union affairs and the relationship between union officials and union members.
Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA)
2007 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that claims of sex discrimination in pay under Title VII were not timely because discrimination charges were not filed with the EEOC within the required 180-day time frame.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
U.S. case that set the standard for determining whether discrimination based on disparate impact exists.
Griggs v. Duke Power
Employees who are excluded from U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
Exempt employees
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
U.S. act that amended the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to include all employee benefits; also provided standards that an employee’s waiver of the right to sue for age discrimination must meet in order to be upheld by a court.
Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA)
U.S. act that protected and encouraged the growth of the union movement; established workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively with employers.
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
U.S. act that defines what is included as hours worked and is therefore compensable and a factor in calculating overtime.
Portal-to-Portal Act
Legal doctrine under which a party can be held liable for the wrongful actions of another party.
Vicarious liability
States that a fiduciary of a plan covered by the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act has legal and financial obligations not to take more risks when investing employee benefit program funds than a reasonably knowledgeable, prudent investor would under similar circumstances.
Prudent person rule
Statement in U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act that requires employers subject to the act to provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment.
General Duty Clause
Sexual, romantic, or emotional/spiritual attraction that one feels for persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or both sexes and more than one gender.
Sexual orientation
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Pregnancy Discrimination Act
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against specified categories of veterans; applies to federal government contractors and subcontractors.
Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA)
Type of liability insurance covering an organization against claims by employees, former employees, and employment candidates alleging that their legal rights in the employment relationship have been violated.
Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI)
Process by which a retirement benefit becomes non-forfeitable
Vesting
U.S. act that established uniform minimum standards to ensure that employee benefit and pension plans are set up and maintained in a fair and financially sound manner.
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
Landmark 1975 U.S. labor relations case that dealt with the right of a unionized employee to have another person present during certain investigatory interviews.
NLRB v. Weingarten
U.S act that protects privacy of background information and ensures that information supplied is accurate.
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
Individuals who exchange work for wages or salary; in the U.S., workers who are covered by Fair Labor Standards Act regulations as determined by the IRS
Employees
Employees covered under U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act regulations, including minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
Nonexempt employees
Any fixed, recurring period of 168 consecutive hours (7 days times 24 hours = 168 hours).
Workweek
Factor (such as religion, gender, national origin, etc.) that is reasonably necessary, in the normal operations of an organization, to carry out a particular job function.
Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)
Medical condition or disorder, other than one resulting from an occupational injury, caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment.
Occupational illness
U.S act that prohibits discrimination against individuals on the basis of their genetic information in both employment and health insurance.
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability because of his/her disability.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
U.S. act that creates a rolling time frame for filing wage discrimination claims and expands plaintiff field beyond employee who was discriminated against.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Principle of employment in the U.S. that employers have the right to hire, fire, demote, and promote whomever they choose for any reason unless there is a law or contract to the contrary and that employees have the right to quit a job at any time.
Employment at-will
Case that established criteria for disparate treatment.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
1971 U.S. case that stated that an employer may not, in the absence of business necessity, refuse to hire women with preschool-aged children while hiring men with such children.
Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation
Occurs when sexual or other discriminatory conduct is so severe and pervasive that it interferes with an individual’s performance; creates an intimidating, threatening, or humiliating work environment; or perpetuates a situation that affects the employee’s psychological well-being.
Hostile environment harassment
Type of discrimination that occurs when an applicant or employee is treated differently because of his or her membership in a protected class.
Disparate treatment
U.S. court ruling that distinguished between supervisor harassment that results in tangible employment action and supervisor harassment that does not.
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton
U.S. court ruling that distinguished between supervisor harassment that results in tangible employment action and supervisor harassment that does not.
Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth
Required for nonexempt workers under U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act at 1.5 times the regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek.
Overtime pay
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against job applicants on the basis of national origin or citizenship and establishes penalties for hiring undocumented workers.
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
U.S. law that requires federal contractors with contracts of $100,000 or more as well as recipients of grants from federal government to certify that they are maintaining a drug-free workplace.
Drug-Free Workplace Act
Self-employed individuals hired on a contract basis for specialized services.
Independent contractors
Type of sexual harassment that occurs when an employee is forced to choose between giving in to a superior’s sexual demands and forfeiting an economic benefit such as a pay increase, a promotion, or continued employment.
Quid pro quo harassment
Modifying a job application process, a work environment, or the circumstances under which a job is performed to enable a qualified individual with a disability to be considered for the job and perform its essential functions.
Reasonable accommodation
U.S. act that provides individuals and dependents who may lose health-care coverage with opportunity to pay to continue coverage.
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
U.S. act that requires certain contractors and subcontractors to pay laborers and mechanics no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits for corresponding work on federal contracts.
Davis-Bacon Act
U.S. act that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and permitted states to not recognize same-sex marriages recognized by other states; ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court.
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
1992 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an employer cannot be compelled to allow non-employee organizers onto the business property.
Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB
U.S. act that protects the employment, reemployment, and retention rights of persons who serve or have served in the uniformed services.
Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)
Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as disparate impact.
Adverse impact
Injury that results from a work-related accident or exposure involving a single incident in the work environment.
Occupational injury
Union employees’ right in U.S. to have a union representative or coworker present during an investigatory interview.
Weingarten rights
First comprehensive U.S. law making it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
U.S. act that requires contractors and subcontractors on certain contracts to pay service employees in various classes no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found in the locality or the rates found in the previous contractor’s collective bargaining agreement.
McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act
Refers to one’s internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or boy or girl), which may or may not be the same as one’s sexual assignment at birth.
Gender identity
U.S act that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, youth employment, and record-keeping standards affecting full- and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
U.S. act that prevents private employers from requiring applicants or employees to take a polygraph test for preemployment screening or during the course of employment, with certain exceptions.
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
U.S. act that established the first national policy for workplace safety and health and continues to deliver standards that employers must meet to guarantee the health and safety of their employees.
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act (OSHA)
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requirement that individuals purchase health insurance was constitutional but requirement that states expand Medicaid was not.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
U.S. acts that expanded FMLA leave for employees with family members who are covered members of the military.
National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA)
U.S. act that made it unlawful to intercept messages in transmission, access stored information on electronic communication services, or disclose any of this information.
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one’s major life activities.
Disability
U.S act that amended Title VII and gave the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission authority to “back up” its administrative findings and conduct its own enforcement litigation.
Equal Employment Opportunity Act
Procedural document designed to assist employers in complying with federal regulations prohibiting discrimination.
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures
U.S. act that expands the possible damage awards available to victims of intentional discrimination to include compensatory and punitive damages; gives plaintiffs in cases of alleged discrimination the right to a jury trial.
Civil Rights Act of 1991
People who are covered under a particular federal or state anti-discrimination law.
Protected class
Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as adverse impact.
Disparate impact
Refers to the country (including those that no longer exist) of one’s birth or of one’s ancestors’ birth.
National origin
2010 U.S. law that requires virtually all citizens and legal residents to have minimum health coverage and requires employers with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health coverage that meets minimum benefit specifications or pay a penalty.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
U.S. act that imposed several restrictions and requirements on unions.
Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA)
Amendments to U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act covering the definition of individuals regarded as having a disability, mitigating measures, and other rules to guide the analysis of what constitutes a disability.
ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA)
U.S. act that prohibits wage discrimination by requiring equal pay for equal or “substantially equal” work performed by men and women.
Equal Pay Act (EPA)
U.S. act that provides employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for family members or because of a serious health condition of the employee.
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
U.S. act that requires that all publicly held companies establish internal controls and procedures for financial reporting to reduce the possibility of corporate fraud.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
U.S. act that establishes a minimum wage, maximum hours, and health and safety standards for contracts to manufacture or furnish materials, articles, or equipment to the U.S. government or the District of Columbia.
Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act
Which employee would be covered under the whistleblower protections in the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act?
Employee who raises allegations of fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission
SOX protects employees from retaliation when they raise allegations of fraud to either a federal agency or a member of the organization who has the authority to “investigate, discover, or terminate misconduct.” Raising the allegations to the Securities and Exchange Commission would qualify employees for protection under the act, while using social media, a family friend, or going to the media would not qualify for whistleblower protections.
Which would constitute retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act?
Giving a poor performance evaluation to a complaint after the complaint filing
An act of retaliation is aimed at punishing a person for having made a complaint and/or deterring the person from pursuing the complaint. A poor evaluation delivered after a compliant filing could be perceived as retaliation. Employers are allowed to gather evidence and discuss a complaint with internal parties on a ’need to know’ basis. If termination is part of a reduction in force, it is not retaliation. Employers may be required to demonstrate untargeted treatment in the action, however.
An organization erroneously withholds deductions from several exempt employees’ paychecks. Under the safe-harbor provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which action should the organization take?
Make a good-faith effort to comply in the future
The safe-harbor provision prevents an employer from losing the overtime exemption for improper pay deductions, regardless of the reason, if the employer has “a clearly communicated” policy (not necessarily in writing) and makes a good-faith effort to comply in the future. While the organization must reimburse employees for any improper deductions, there is no requirement to pay any amount beyond the improperly deducted amount.
The HR department of a federal contractor has verified that a current research scientist was recently convicted of a misdemeanor involving a controlled substance. The initial arrest was made while the employee was off site on vacation. How should HR advise the department to proceed?
Review the organization’s policy
The organization’s policy should guide the response. The organization is not required to report to the contracting agency because the violation did not occur at work. Immediate termination may not be justified, unless workplace policies specifically state this requirement.
What type of visa is necessary for employers to hire and retain highly skilled foreign workers, usually those working in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields?
H-1B
H-1B nonimmigrant work visas are the most commonly sought by U.S. employers. The U.S. employer must petition for entry of the employee based on their need for a non-U.S. resident employee in a professional-level position.
At which stage of the employee life cycle should HR begin documenting compliance with employer record-keeping requirements?
When a candidate applies for a position
At which stage of the employee life cycle should HR begin documenting compliance with employer record-keeping requirements?
Which injury must be reported to the OSHA?
Loss of consciousness
All organizations with more than ten employees, except for low-hazard businesses, must report all employee occupational injuries and illnesses that are beyond first aid. OSHA has specific criteria and forms for recording both work-related injuries and work-related illnesses.
Which of the following occurs when an applicant or an employee is treated differently because of their membership in a protected class?
Disparate treatment
Disparate treatment discrimination occurs when an applicant or employee is treated differently because of that individual’s membership in a protected class. Disparate, or adverse, impact results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect.
An employee on FMLA leave fails to return to work upon the completion of the leave. The manager tells the HR business partner they want the employee’s employment terminated. What should the next step be?
Make concerted, documented attempts to contact the employee, requesting an update and their plans to return to work.
The first step must be contacting the employee to determine the employee’s status. Under no circumstances should the employee be fired for failure to report to work until an update is obtained from the employee.
What agency should an employer contact with questions related to a new pregnancy discrimination regulation?
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
The SSA and the DOL do not handle discrimination pertaining to pregnancy. Although SHRM would be a good resource for information, the EEOC is the administrative agency that handles discrimination laws and can best provide guidance on how to implement the new regulation.
The SSA and the DOL do not handle discrimination pertaining to pregnancy. Although SHRM would be a good resource for information, the EEOC is the administrative agency that handles discrimination laws and can best provide guidance on how to implement the new regulation.
Because of the natural disaster, the employer may be excepted from WARN and should consult a lawyer
When a permanent layoff affects 500 or more employees, employees must be given the 60 days’ warning required by WARN. There may be an exception because of the disaster, but this may have to be negotiated with the Department of Labor. The organization would probably not be considered a “faltering company.”
Under the EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, adverse impact occurs when the selection rate for a protected class is less than what percentage of that for the group with the highest selection rate?
80
Under the guidelines, adverse impact occurs when the selection rate for a protected class is less than 80% of the rate for the class with the highest selection rate. This is commonly known as the 80% or four-fifths rule.
A newly implemented applicant selection program may inadvertently be noncompliant with equal opportunity laws. Which action should the HR director take?
Consult with the organization’s attorney to ensure the program is compliant with all employment laws.
In order to reduce legal liability, the HR director should ask the organization’s attorney to review the program and ensure that it doesn’t violate any employment laws or regulations. Waiting to see if the organization is sued unnecessarily exposes the organization to legal risk. Removing the program from use shields the organization from legal risk but wastes the resources allocated to the implementation of the program. Applicant selection data may be important to determining if the program complies with employment laws but may still leave the organization exposed to legal risk.
Certain bona fide executives are partially exempt from the protections of which act?
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Age discrimination is permissible under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) if age is a bona fide occupational qualification for reasons that are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the enterprise. Other exceptions to the ADEA’s nondiscrimination requirements may occur when the employer is adhering to a genuine seniority or benefit plan or is disciplining or firing a person for good cause or when the employee is a top executive or policy maker.
Which of the following is a recommended measure to help ensure a fair workplace?
Refer to “sexual orientation” rather than “sexual preference.”
It is recommended to refer to “sexual orientation” rather than “sexual preference.”
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, what right can employers exercise?
Refusing the commencement of an OSHA inspection unless a search warrant is produced.
Inspections are normally done without advance notice. An employer must submit to an inspection if there is a search warrant. In the absence of a warrant, an employer has the right to request one before an inspection begins.
An organization’s HR VP is concerned about the effect of a proposed statute on the organization. What should the VP do to express these concerns?
Reach out to the representatives who have been elected in the districts that the company is located in.
A statute is passed by a legislature, and it does not feature a public comment period like regulations do. Since the statute has not been passed, administrative agencies would likely not be able to issue guidelines on the enforcement of the law. The best option is to discuss the impact of the proposed statute with the representative of the district that is home to the organization being affected, in an effort to get the representative to propose changes to the statute before it is passed into law.
An organization is looking to add an industrial engineer familiar with a new manufacturing process developed overseas in the past year. Before petitioning for an H-1B visa, what must the employer do?
Seek approval of a Labor Condition Application
Prior to petitioning for an H-1B visa, the organization must seek approval of a Labor Condition Application. H-1B visas have a set duration (and may be extended), so the organization does not have to specify the end date for the employee. The H-1B visa mandates that the foreign worker be paid a wage that is, at minimum, the same as that of similar workers in the organization or the prevailing wage as determined by the Department of Labor, so the organization doesn’t have to identify labor cost savings. The organization must ensure that the recruitment of the H-1B worker does not adversely affect the conditions of the employer’s U.S-resident employees in similar jobs; dismissing those employees would be in violation of the H-1B requirements.
Which of the following statements is true with regard to Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requirements that generally apply when an employer obtains a consumer report for employment purposes?
An employer must clearly and conspicuously notify the individual in writing that a report may be used.
FCRA provisions require that an employer must clearly and conspicuously notify the individual in writing, in a document consisting solely of that notice, that a report may be used. The notice cannot be incorporated into an employment application.
Which reflects a fundamental difference between Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave granted to care for a non-military-related family member and military caregiver leave?
Individual leave during a single 12-month period
A non-military-related family member’s leave entitles an eligible employee to no more than 12 workweeks of caregiving leave in any given FMLA leave year. A covered family member’s military-related leave entitles an eligible employee to as many as 26 workweeks of FMLA leave for caregiving purposes in a single 12-month period.
During an investigative interview of a union employee, a union representative is present. The union representative interrupts to ask clarifying questions and tells the employee how to answer questions. The union representative also seeks to enter information into the record regarding the circumstances of the incident. What is true regarding the conduct of the union representative?
The union representative is not allowed to tell the employee how to answer questions.
The union representative may advise the employee as to how to answer a question but cannot directly tell the employee how to answer questions. Asking clarifying questions and adding information supporting the employee’s case are both allowed, however.
A senior leader of an organization asks HR to source new software to monitor employees’ cursor movement while on websites and track what they view and how long they stay on each particular page, fearing the potential loss of intellectual property. How should HR respond?
Inform the senior leader that this may be in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act makes it unlawful (with certain permitted exceptions) to intercept messages in transmission, among other things. This applies to Internet searches, as employers should not monitor employees while they are in a website but may only review where they have visited after they have left the website in question.
Who or what is responsible for the proposal, adoption, and enforcement of regulations?
Administrative agencies
Administrative agencies are responsible for proposing, adopting, and enforcing regulations. Congress creates statutes and laws. The president can issue executive orders. The Supreme Court interprets the law when lawsuits are brought before it.
While reviewing interview notes, an HR manager discovers that an applicant was not hired because the supervisor stated that the applicant was pregnant. The HR manager schedules a meeting to address the concerns. What describes the concerns the HR manager has regarding the company’s responsibility to equal opportunity?
The employer may not be in compliance with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
The PDA bars employers from refusing to hire a woman because she is pregnant. Rewriting the interview notes is unethical and probably illegal. The company does not have to hire the applicant because the applicant may not have been the best qualified. Employers respond to claims but do not file claims with the EEOC. In addition, a claim was not submitted to the EEOC in this scenario.
Which key security concern should an organization consider for storing sensitive personnel records in a cloud-based platform??
Frequency and performance of security updates.
It is important to consider how a cloud system maintains their security practices given the frequency with which new threats emerge. Understanding how they patch and update security and how they update software is crucial to determining if the cloud can be trusted to host key legal documentation. Power system integrity, the likelihood of natural disasters, and file accessibility could all be key concerns for an organization but do not represent security concerns that are within the control of the software provider.
Which action violates the protected class status of a pregnant employee under Title VII as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?
Singling out pregnancy-related conditions for special procedures to determine a person’s ability to work.
Women who are pregnant or are affected by pregnancy-related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations. An employer may not single out pregnancy-related conditions for special procedures to determine an employee’s ability to work.
Federal inspectors cite an employer for multiple health and safety violations. The employer was already aware of these issues and working to correct them. What measures might the employer take to avoid or reduce penalties?
Document recent efforts to correct issues
Employers may point to their good-faith efforts to correct issues as a way of reducing OSHA penalties. Outsourcing hazardous work would not affect OSHA action, and it is probably unethical. Closing lines may be an ineffective overreaction. Training may not be the solution for the safety issue.
A company with 45 employees intends to increase its staff by 15% within the next month. What policy and compliance factor will be affected by this increase in staff.?
Eligibility for protected FMLA leave
With a 15% increase in the next month, the company will go from 45 employees to 52 employees and will now be a covered employer under FMLA. This will require providing required notices as well as the development of the FMLA policy.
Which of the following is true regarding E-Verify?
It allows employers to verify employment eligibility of their employees regardless of citizenship
E-Verify allows employers to verify employment eligibility of their employees regardless of citizenship
What laws must be considered when administering return-to-work programs?
FMLA and ADA
An employee may be covered under the FMLA or the ADA, depending on the situation. These laws must be considered when making decisions affecting ill or injured employees.
Which principle of employment at-will affects employers in countries that recognize this employment right?
The employee is not legally bound to any financial liability incurred for abandoning the job.
When the principle of employment at-will applies, primarily in the U.S., both the employee and the employer are free to terminate the relationship with no consequences, assuming that no other contracts or agreements have been made and the termination was legal (in other words, not a case of wrongful discharge).
The CEO of an organization asks the head of HR to craft a new organization-wide attendance plan, following the transition of the majority of the workforce to a hybrid and remote work model, to ensure that employees that must work in the office full time are treated fairly in comparison to remote and hybrid employees. What must HR consider when crafting the new plan?
The plan must include exceptions for individuals with disabilities
The organization must provide reasonable accommodations, including exceptions to the policy, to individuals with disabilities, as evidenced by the 2011 settlement between Verizon and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Which is an exception to attorney-client privilege?
Discussing how to fraudulently reduce an organization’s tax liability?
Discussions for the purpose of committing a crime or civil tort (including fraud) are generally not covered under attorney-client privilege. However, discussing facts and circumstances that led to legal actions and how to best respond to allegations that may include a legal risk would typically be covered.
An employer is being sued by a former employee, and the case is entering the discovery phase. Which information would be considered attorney work product and therefore exempt from discovery?
HR director’s e-mail to the employer’s attorney explaining the complaint
Attorney work product refers to information shared by an attorney and client in preparation for litigation. The e-mail to the attorney would be considered work product. The performance reviews are evidence and should be shared during discovery. Conversations or correspondence that occurred before an internal investigation was begun will probably not be considered work product. Fraudulent activity is not protected by attorney-client privilege.
Which situation describes unlawful workplace harassment?
A previously reliable employee reports intimidating behavior from coworkers that interferes with the employee’s ability to work.
The EEOC states that harassment becomes unlawful when the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. While an employee filing a claim with the EEOC may be an indicator that harassment has occurred, the act of filing a claim does not describe a situation where harassment becomes unlawful. A manager addressing performance concerns in a reasonable way is not harassment. It may be annoying when a manager laughs and chats with male employees and only smiles at female employees, but it is not unlawful harassment.
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, when must overtime be paid to a nonexempt employee?
When the employee works 43 hours in a week even though the individual is salaried
All nonexempt workers must be paid overtime pay: 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 hours in any workweek. The regular rate of pay includes basic pay plus nondiscretionary bonuses, shift premiums, production bonuses, and commissions. It does not include other supplemental earnings such as discretionary bonuses, employer contributions to benefit plans, pay for unworked hours, or small non-cash gifts on special occasions (generally valued under $25, such as a holiday turkey).
Four qualified beneficiaries, including a spouse and three adopted stepchildren under the age of 26, are insured under the employed spouse’s fully insured employer health plan when the employed spouse unexpectedly passes away. Under what act can the deceased employee’s qualified beneficiaries maintain health coverage for an applicable, finite period?
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
The deceased employee’s qualified beneficiaries can maintain health coverage under the plan pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The other responses are not applicable under this scenario.
An employer wants to hire 15-year-olds to work 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. What should HR advise management?
This may violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The FLSA restricts the hours and conditions of employment for minors if employment may harm a child’s education or health. This situation could prevent the completion of homework and adequate sleep, and the employer should require a permit issued by the appropriate regulatory agency or the child’s school.
A former employee elects COBRA coverage 45 days after employment separation. Fifteen months later, a qualified beneficiary is hospitalized for a serious injury. The claim is denied because of cancelled coverage for which no cancellation notice was provided. What should be the former employee’s recourse?
Provide the employer with copies of the election notice and the denied claim, and request COBRA coverage retroactive to the coverage termination date
The former employee should provide the former employer with a copy of the completed COBRA election notice and the denied claim and then request COBRA coverage retroactive to the coverage termination date and payment of the claim for all incurred, covered medical expenses. Employees must elect COBRA coverage within 60 days of losing eligibility for the employer’s insurance coverage. They may continue coverage up to 18 or 36 months, or longer. It is the employer’s responsibility to comply with COBRA.
A U.S.-based organization prides itself on its equal application of all time and attendance policies. Per the EEOC v. Verizon settlement (2011), what needs to occur with these policies?
Add equity to the policies by including reasonable accommodation exceptions
In 2011, Verizon reached an agreement to settle a disability class-action lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The lawsuit alleged that Verizon unlawfully denied reasonable accommodation to hundreds of employees. The company had failed to make exceptions to attendance plans to accommodate employees with disabilities, and it had disciplined employees for missing a certain number of shifts without allowing absences caused by disabilities to be excused.
Which individual can an employer request to take a polygraph test?
Accountant whose department is under scrutiny for embezzlement
Employees reasonably suspected of involvement in a workplace incident resulting in economic loss to the employer’s business may be tested under one of the limited exemptions in the Employee Polygraph Protection Act. As the accountant may reasonably be suspected of participating in the embezzlement, the accountant may be tested under the act.
Which of the following best describes a hostile environment in regard to sexual harassment?
It occurs when sexual or other discriminatory conduct is so severe and pervasive that it unreasonably interferes with an individual’s performance.
Hostile environment harassment occurs when sexual or other discriminatory conduct is so severe and pervasive that it unreasonably interferes with an individual’s performance.
Which visa category is reserved for full-time university, college, high school, or elementary school students who study at a school approved by the USCIS?
F-1
F-1 visas are reserved for full-time university, college, high school, or elementary school students who study at a school approved by the USCIS.
A U.S. organization that provides security guards as a service has a $150,000 prime contract with an organization with numerous construction sites to guard. If recent thefts have required that security guards work extra shifts, what must the contractor’s HR professional ensure?
Security guard contractors must be paid at least time and a half for all hours worked over 40 hours during a workweek
The U.S. McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act of 1965 requires contractors and subcontractors on prime contracts in excess of $100,000 to pay laborers and mechanics, including guards, at least time and a half for all hours worked during a workweek by the contractor or subcontractor.
