Delivering presents to the good little boys and girls all over the world in a single night is hard work. Of course, Santa Claus makes it look easy with his twinkling eyes and merry dimples, magical sleigh, and team of eight tiny flying reindeer. But does that mean he is any less entitled to compensation? Of course not! Let’s just assume that Santa’s employer - the North Pole, obviously - is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). To comply with the law, the North Pole, like any other employer, has to answer certain questions.

First, do Santa’s job...Read More

The world of workforce management includes a multitude of “terms of art;” These are words or phrases that have taken on special meaning to human resources professionals and their counsel. Those terms related to disability discrimination law are particularly distinctive. Even those who are well-versed in other areas of human resources law, often find it difficult to understand the meaning of some of the more commonly-used words and phrases involved in this area of employee management. Unfortunately, supervisors, HR personnel, and employers who do not understand the meaning of the following five key phrases may fail to comply with the...Read More

One of the more challenging laws against discrimination involves workplace accommodations for transgender employees. This particular protected class has been the law in Washington State since 2006 but only recently been spotlighted with some help from Caitlyn Jenner. It is estimated that more than 700,000 adults in the U.S. are transgender.

Under Washington law, "gender expression or identity" means having or being perceived as having a gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior, or expression, whether or not that gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior, or expression is different from that traditionally associated with the sex assigned to that person at birth.

The...Read More

Last month, Viacom, Inc., the world’s sixth largest mass media company, settled a class-action lawsuit with 12,500 former interns. Viacom, the owner of Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, will have to pay out $7.21 million to interns who claim that they were paid less than minimum wage or not paid at all. While the initial suit was filed by an ex-MTV intern Casey Ojeda on August 2013, the deal will include all interns who worked in the company’s NYC offices from 2007-2013 as well as those who worked in their California offices from 2010-2013. By not paying these interns for...Read More

Costco recently found out the hard way just how important every policy, every word, in your employee handbook is. This past week, in Marini v Costco Wholesale Corp., a long-term Costco employee with Tourette’s syndrome made this point against the warehouse superstore. Marini alleged that he was harassed by his co-workers for his disability, asked for and was given a transfer to another department as a result, but that the harassment continued and nothing was done about it. He was eventually fired for secretly tape-recording his interactions with co-workers in violation of Company policy.

Marini sued alleging a hostile work...Read More

In an interesting effort to accommodate non-Judeo-Christian public employees, a new Washington law, which took effect on June 12, 2014, gives public employees an additional two unpaid holidays per calendar year "for reasons of faith or conscience." The measure amends RCW 1.16.050, which had granted public employees one paid floating holiday per calendar year in addition setting out the legal holidays recognized by the State of Washington. The new law adds two unpaid holidays allows for accommodation of employees with holy days which do not coincide with state legal holidays. The bullet points of the new law...Read More

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to adopt a new ordinance that grants criminal offenders special rights in job application processes.  Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) 14.17 regulates the use of criminal background information in employment decisions.  Absent a “legitimate business reason”, employers are prohibited from using criminal convictions as the basis for denying employment for qualified applicants or employees.

The ordinance takes effect November 1, 2013.  Thereafter, Seattle employers shall be prohibited from making any inquiry on a job application about an applicant’s criminal history.  This ordinance impacts employers with one or more employees in the city...Read More

In response to growing issues related to privacy and an employee's online presence, Governor Jay Inslee recently signed s new law making it unlawful for employers to require an employee or applicant to disclose social networking website usernames or passwords, or to force an employee or applicant to add any person to the employee’s list of social networking contacts. This law will become effective July 28.

Washington joins a host of other states that have taken legislative action to protect employee social media accounts. Utah, New Mexico, California, and Michigan have passed similar laws, and more than 20 other states...Read More

The job interview process can be a legal minefield for both employers and prospective employees when it comes to what can and cannot be asked in an interview.  There are both state and federal laws setting the parameters of job interviews.  Beresford Booth has counseled both employers and employees through the interview question minefield, but for some weird questions there may be just no simple answer.  Some favorites from the Best of 2012 Weird Interview Questions include:

• "If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S., which would it be and why?"
• "What kitchen utensil would...Read More