HR Monthly Round Up - July 2024
Welcome, everyone! In the next few minutes, we’ll review the latest HR news. Let’s get started.
On June 28, the Eastern District Court of Texas stopped the U.S. Department of Labor from enforcing the new federal minimum salary threshold for exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The decision, however, applies only to employees of the state of Texas. It does not apply to private employers in Texas, or to public and private employers in other states.
The final rule, commonly called the white-collar exempt rule, is facing other challenges, including one that involves a nationwide injunction.
Moving on, employers with remote workers should watch for new electronic posting information this fall. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which oversees posting requirements for anti-discrimination laws, plans to release a proposed rule relating to online posting of the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal poster.
Employers with 15 or more employees must display the poster. The EEOC targets an October publication date. A final rule could take effect in 2025.
In other news, a recent court case out of Illinois focused on the fact that 12 workweeks doesn’t always equate to 480 leave hours under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Only someone who normally works 40 hours per week gets 480 hours.
In the case, an exempt supervisor who worked 60 to 70 hours per week took intermittent leave for a chronic condition. His medical treatments reduced his schedule to 40 hours per week, so that’s what the employer based his leave entitlement on.
Eventually, the employee and employer parted ways. However, the employee sued, arguing that he was entitled to more than 480 hours of FMLA leave because his typical workweek was 60 to 70 hours, not 40. In other words, he claimed that he should have had more protected FMLA leave hours than he received. The employer lost summary judgement, and the case will move to trial if it’s not settled.
The moral is, even though all FMLA-eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of leave, their leave entitlement is based on their actual workweek. So, this could result in someone having more or less than 480 hours of FMLA leave when they take time off intermittently or on a reduced schedule.
That’s all the HR news we have time for today. For more information on these topics, click the content links in the transcript below. Thanks for watching. See you next month!