Durham 1
Business Law:
Task 2 Situation A The U.S Department of Labor has a wage and hour division that manages and enforces the Family Medical Leave Act. The FMLA gives eligible employees employed by qualified companies up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job protected leave in a twelve month period, with continuation of group health insurance if it applies. Employees that are eligible may have authorized leave for the birth or adoption of a child or placement of a child in foster care, demands that may come up regarding an employee’s family member who is on active duty to the armed forces, to care for an immediate family member who has a serious health condition, or an employee’s own health condition that prevents them from doing their job. Employees are also eligible for up to 26 weeks leave in a given year to care for an immediate family member that is a serviceman who has a serious injury or illness.
Agencies that qualify to provide the FMLA include all public agencies, as well as state and federal employers, schools and private employers who employ fifty or more employees in twenty or more work works within a year. For an employee to be eligible they must first work for a covered employee, have worked for the employer a minimum of 1,250 hours over the course of twelve months and worked in a U.S location where at least fifty employees are employed by an employer within 75 miles. Employers are not required to pay employees during their leave, but employees may choose to substitute any accumulated paid leave they may have to cover their leave. When an employee returns from leave they must be restored to their original job or one of equal pay and benefits.
Company X is a private company with over 75 employees. I assume they qualify in the remaining categories in order to provide FMLA to their employees. Employee A has worked
Durham 2 with the company for two years, most likely full-time and so he qualifies as eligible for leave. Normally a 30-day notice is required by the employee to let his manager know of his desired leave, but his wives pre-mature labor did not allow for this. He was gone eleven weeks which is within the allowed time of leave and returned to his previous job and pay that is required under the FMLA. My opinion is that no law has been violated. The employee does seem to be under the impression that he would be getting his eleven weeks of withheld salary which the new manager has denied. The employee may choose to use any paid leave he has remaining as compensation. He could also set up a meeting with old and new manager to discuss a possible agreement that may have been made before the old manager left; otherwise he will continue his employment without his eleven weeks of withheld salary.
Situation B The Age Discrimination and Employment Act protects employees and job applicants forty years of age or older against discrimination in the workplace based on age. Under this law it is illegal for employers to discriminate against an individual in respect to employment terms, hiring, firing, promoting, lay-off, compensation, benefits and training. The ADEA even permits employers to favor older workers and forbids anyone from retaliating against management who follows this law or opposes any practices that may discriminate anyone based on their age. The ADEA applies to all employers with twenty or more workers, to employment and labor establishments and to the federal government. The company has over twenty workers and therefore qualifies for ADEA. Employee B is covered by the ADEA because he is 68 years old. Employee B not only meets the age requirement, but he has reliably worked for the company for 42 years and was scored as an
Durham 3 exceptional employee. Even with all these positive attributes, employee B was denied a promotion due to his age. The employer foolishly decided to promote an under qualified younger employee instead. I believe it is