Texas Employment Law Blog : San Antonio Employment Discrimination Lawyer & Attorney : McKinney Law Firm : Sexual Harassment, Wrongful Termination : Texas

Think all your boss does is wonder around the cubicles asking "What's happening?"  Well get ready for him/her to get even less involved.

Anybots, Inc. is now selling a line of remote-control robots that, among other uses, can be used by bosses to attend meetings and wander the office halls remotely.  Richard Garriott has purchased one to run his Austin, Texas-based video game development company, Portalarium.  

The robot rolls around the office on two wheels, allowing boss Garriott to participate in meetings and even strike up conversations with his developers when working from his New York home.

Hmmm.

So, what do you think? Innovation or indignity?

Video of the story from KXAN-TV in Austin after the break:

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The EEOC has filed suit against the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant franchise, alleging that the business intentionally discriminated against older workers (those over 40 years old) in its hiring practices.  The company allegedly rejected applicants for jobs as waiters and bartenders by telling them things like, "We think you are a little too old to work here." It needed greeters, it said, but only "young, hot ones who are 'chipper'." 

The EEOC alleges that its statistical analysis shows that only 1.9 percent of so-called 'front of the house' employees (greeters, waiters, bartenders, etc.) at Texas Roadhouse are aged 40 or older.

ABCNEWS has the complete story here (includes video).  In its report, ABC reports that the EEOC has had an increase in age discrimination complaints during the current economic downturn. In November, EEOC hearings on the impact of the economy on older workers found that workers 55-and-up spend far more time searching for work than do younger workers and are jobless far longer. Older workers have suffered "the longest spell of high unemployment" seen in the past 60 years.

Dallas employment lawyer Michael Kelsheimer writes about the same case this month on his Texas Employer Handbook blog.  In his thoughtful piece he discusses the fact that, despite what many may think, discrimination is real and there is still a substantial amount of it out there.  He writes:

Before I got involved in employment law, I was naive enough to believe that discrimination was largely a thing of the past. I was flat wrong. Even with all the hype, sex and race discrimination are still out there. They are hidden better these days, but these types of discrimination are still there.

He notes that in his personal experience, age discrimination is the most prevalent form of discrimination he sees and he discusses why he thinks that his.  Kelsheimer posits that much of the very real discrimination out there against workers over 40 may be unintentional - but that it won't matter when it comes to facing a jury trial.  

For my part, I am not as willing to believe that employers don't know what they are doing when they hire a 25-year-old with little experience over a 40-year-old with plenty.  But then, my viewpoint has been altered from the years I have spent working with clients who have had their lives devastated by discriminatory firings.  

In any event, Kelsheimer's article is a good one and I encourage you to give his blog a look.

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Social media has presented a particular problem for employees and employers over the last couple of years. How much privacy does an employee deserve with regard to comments made to “friends” on his or her own time on Facebook, Twitter and the like? To what degree can an employer police Facebook pages of its employees and protect its own good name? These are hard questions that we are going to be grappling with for some time as our very concept of privacy changes. This week the All Facebook blog has an article discussing the current legal constraints on an employer’s ability to police its employees’ use of social media. Read the entire story here.

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Here is a link to today's Employment Law Daily - Now hosted at paper.li

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Every Tuesday through Thursday, its the...

Daily Update for October 25, 2011

• EEOC Sues Scooter Store for Disability Discrimination

In an ironic twist, The Scooter Store, which serves people with limited mobility, has been sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for disability discrimination. According to EEOC, the Texas-based retailer refused to accommodate an employee’s request for a temporary leave due to a knee injury and then fired him from a New York store. Read the entire story here.

• Disney Mickey Mousing Employees with an “Electronic Whip”

Disneyland Hotel laundry workers answer to what they call the “electronic whip.” Laundry rooms are outfitted with large flat screen monitors that keep track of employee efficiency. Each person is listed, followed by a number representing their current speed. Everyone can see who is the quickest–and slowest–in the group. Keeping track of employees’ work is not the issue but the public nature of this tote board “whip” does have some questionable aspects to it. Employees are reportedly skipping bathroom breaks out of fear, and some also have expressed concern for pregnant and/or elderly colleagues. Read the whole story here.

 

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Daily Update for October 20, 2011

• The ethics surrounding lawyers Facebook friending people in connection with litigation

  Can a plaintiff’s lawyer “friend” on Facebook high-ranking executives of a company he is suing and who he believes are dissatisfied with their jobs (therefore likely to make disparaging comments about their employer on FB)? That’s the subject Mike Maslanka tackles here on his Work Matters blog.

• FMLA FAQ

  FMLA FAQ: Can an Employer Credit Pre-FMLA Leave Against an Employee’s FMLA Entitlement When the Employee Becomes Eligible? Put another way, if the employer grants leave during an employee’s first twelve months of employment (during which said employee does not qualify for FMLA protection) can the employer take a credit for that leave against the employee’s FMLA entitlement once he or she DOES become eligible. Jeff Nowak of the excellent FMLA Insights Blog tackles that issue this week. You can find the article here. Here’s a hint: If you are an employer, you might not like the answer.

• Occupy Your Workplace: Changes To Employment Laws That Would Make a Difference

  My friend Donna Ballman has an excellent article in the Huffington Post this week discussing what changes to the country’s employment laws that would have the most positive impact for workers. Her list includes: 1. Fair Pay Laws Regarding Overpaymen of Executives; 2. Just Cause Protection For Employees; and 3. Freedom of Speech Protection for Private Employees. Give her article a look. Many readers might be surprised what isn’t in the law already.

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Daily Update for October 19, 2011

• Winning the Battle but Losing the War

  The Ohio Employer’s Law Blog has a good post up regarding an interesting FMLA issue. The FMLA allows for two different theories of recovery--interference and retaliation. Interference is when an employer denies an FMLA benefit to which an employee is entitled and of which the employee provided notice. Retaliation is when an employee's use of a protected FMLA right causes an employer's adverse action. These claims are mutually exclusive, and a terminated employee can succeed on one and fail on the other. Read the entire post here.

• It’s Never Not Everywhere

  My new favorite podcast about workplace productivity, Back to Work, has a new episode out and you should check it out. This week, Merlin Mann loves and hates iCloud while loving and REALLY loving Dropbox. He and Dan Benjamin observe angry corn, discuss emailing files to yourself, wonder what to do with an ugly photo, and explore Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle. Check it out here.

• Now THIS is How You Quit A Job

  Did you hear about the young man who quit his job at a Marriott Renaissance hotel in Providence, R.I., accompanied by - a marching band? Seriously. If you haven’t yet seen what Marriott tells Hotel Check-In is “an unfortunate way for an employee to resign,” give it a look. The fund starts about 1:30 into the video. It’s sure to go viral. And while it is of debatable value to the young man’s resume, it sure is funny.

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Daily Update for October 18, 2011

• SCOTUS grants cert on federal employment jurisdiction issue

  Yesterday the US Supreme Court granted certiorari in Elgin v. The Department of the Treasury, which raises the issue of whether the Civil Service Reform Act precludes federal district court from having jurisdiction over constitutional claims for equitable relief brought by federal employees. Read the entire story at LawMemo.com.

• Connecticut Becomes First State to Mandate Paid Sick Leave

  While many employees do enjoy some form of paid sick time, the law does not mandate that any paid sick leave be granted to employees… at least until now. Connecticut’s paid sick leave law (Senate Bill 913, Public Act 11–52) is set to become effective on January 1, 2012. The law will make Connecticut the first state to mandate paid sick leave for employees. You can read Jeffrey Mogan’s complete analysis of the new law at the Connecticut Labor & Employment Law Journal. Will other states follow?

• Romney Legal Advisor Robert Bork: Women 'Aren't Discriminated Against Anymore'

  Last August, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork as the co-chair of his "Judicial Advisory Committee." Bork's selection was a clear sign that, if elected, Romney will appoint hard right justices with little regard for how the Constitution protects ordinary Americans. Bork once described the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters as "unsurpassed ugliness." He believes that the government is free to ban contraception outright. And in a recent interview, he stated that he doesn’t believe that the 14th Amendment should protect women because they aren’t discriminated against anymore. Elections have consequences - every woman in the U.S. (and any man that cares about the rights of women) should think really hard about whether Mitt Romney is who they want picking judges in this country. Read the whole story here.

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The Washington Post has a good discussion of the recent increase in legal actions, involving the National Labor Relations Board primarily, having to do with the boundaries of employees' rights to make statements on Facebook and through other forms of social media.

Confusion about what workers can or can’t post has led to a surge of more than 100 complaints at the NLRB and created uncertainty for businesses about how far their social media policies can go. In one case, a Chicago-area car salesman was fired after going on Facebook to complain that his BMW dealership served overcooked hot dogs, stale buns and other cheap food instead of nicer fare at an event to roll out a posh new car model. The NLRB’s enforcement office found the comments were legally protected because the salesman was expressing concerns about the terms and conditions of his job, frustrations he had earlier shared in person with other employees.

The article quoted one employer-side lawyer who indicated that employers are upset that they can't simply terminate an employee for talking about work online.  Employer-side lawyers have been selling their clients social media use policies by the truckload over the last year or so but such policies may prove to be pretty ineffectual in stopping employees from discussing work-related matters with each other via social media.  In actuality, such policies are themselves possibly violative of federal law as an attempt to forbid concerted activity.  

Still, employees should not too brazen about trashing the workplace on Facebook.  I truly think a good rule of thumb when using social media is to assume that NOTHING is private and don't post anything that you wouldn't mind being read by your momma or your boss.

Read the Washington Post article here.

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