Are your Employee Handbooks up to date? Why are they important?

 

Are your Employee Handbooks up to date?

Why are they important?

Voice-over provided by: Crystal L. Bagnardi McBride, SPHR, GPHR ... Thank you, Crystal, for your internship. May your bridges lead to success!!

Thank you ColinVerba & Judgement War Productions LLC

Facebook- Kündigungsgrund 3.0?/Facebook- termination cause 3.0?

source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Facebook- Kündigungsgrund 3.0?

Wie schon in vorherigen Posts (http://vonhennigs.blogspot.com/2010/11/company-accused-of-firing-over-facebook.html und http://vonhennigs.blogspot.com/2013/02/when-can-workers-be-fired-for-posts-and.html) öfter diskutiert, führen Kommentare, Kritik oder Bilder auf Facebook oder anderen sozialen Netzwerken in der Vergangenheit sowohl in Deutschland, als auch in den USA immer häufiger zu – vom Arbeitgeber ausgesprochenen – Kündigungen.

Dieses Schicksal ereilte nun auch einen 21- jährigen Deutschen, der aufgrund eines Bandscheibenvorfalls krankgeschrieben war und während dieser Zeit heiratete. Zwar war die Heirat nicht der Kündigungsgrund, allerdings ein – auf Foto festgehaltener – Vorfall, der sich während der Hochzeit zutrug und den der Mitarbeiter auf Facebook postete. Auf diesem Foto trug der rückenkranke, frischgebackene Ehemann seine Frau durch ein Papierherz.

Dumm nur, dass sein Arbeitgeber das Foto auch gesehen haben muss und aufgrund dessen das Arbeitsverhältnis drei Tage nach der Hochzeit fristlos beendete. Die vom ehemaligen Arbeitnehmer initiierte Klage wurde am 15. August 2013 durch einen Vergleich beendet, bestätigte aber die Kündigung an sich.

Dieser Fall ist ein weiteres Beispiel für den teilweise zu sorglosen Umgang mit den neuen Internet-Medien, dem Web 3.0, das sicherlich viele Vorzüge ausweist, aber – wie vorliegend – auch seinen Schatten wirft.

Autorin: Judith Behr  Legal Trainee/Rechtsreferendarin BridgehouseLaw Charlotte 


Facebook- termination cause 3.0?

As we have already posted in former articles (see http://vonhennigs.blogspot.com/2010/11/company-accused-of-firing-over-facebook.html and http://vonhennigs.blogspot.com/2013/02/when-can-workers-be-fired-for-posts-and.html) comments, criticism or pictures – all somehow work related – have been causes for termination in the past, both in the US and in Germany.

There is one more German sharing that fate now: He got married during his sick leave, suffering a slipped disk. The marriage was not the reason for the termination, but one of the pictures he posted on his Facebook account: it showed him carrying his wife through a "paper heart" on their wedding day.

Bad for him, that his boss must have seen that picture too and – due to that – terminated the employment contract three days after the wedding. The lawsuit ended at August 15th, 2013 in a compromise – but: the termination was confirmed by the judge.

This is another example for the ongoing and extensive change in our society: bringing private life to public, according to the style: Web 3.0 and the negative side of that development. 

 

Author: Judith Behr  Legal Trainee/Rechtsreferendarin BridgehouseLaw Charlotte 

Employee Afraid to Ask for California Overtime

A bookkeeper and office manager for a real estate company in California with about 30 real estate agents—she was busy. She was also paid hourly by the agency which results in one conclusion: she was not qualified as exempt.

"Her boss always worked her overtime and never paid her for it" explains her husband... and then she was fired.

While this is a real case it leads to a few questions:

1. How do you document overtime at your company?
2. Do you calculate and pay according to the law?
3. Do you plan to fire anybody who may have worked overtime?

Many more questions, but most of all... it makes sense to follow the law. Not just regarding overtime.

Please call or email if you have any questions to the applicable Labor Law, the FLSA.

Reinhard von Hennigs
bdhlaw.net



Picture (C): winnond, http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1970