Below is a short summary of major federal laws that relate to employment or severance.  These can guide you in determining if you might have a legal claim.  If you believe any of the Federal Law’s may be applicable in your case, you are best advised to find a lawyer.

POWER NOTE: YOU NEED AN EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY WHO CAN PRACTICE LAW IN THE STATE OF YOUR EMPLOYMENT.

Remember to interview more than one attorney. Make sure you discuss their philosophy, fees, and any conflicts of interest they may have.

TITLE VII OF THE CIVITL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964, AS AMENDED

• Applies only to employers with 15 or more employees.

• Prohibits employers from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin or pregnancy.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)

• Applies only to employers with 15 or more employees.

• Defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

• Is designed to prohibit discrimination against workers with disabilities.

• Provides that if an individual with a disability can perform the essential functions of the job, with reasonable accommodation, that person cannot be discriminated against on the basis of the disability.

AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT (ADEA)

• Applies only to employers with 20 or more employees.

• Applies only to employees who are 40 years old or older.

• Prevents employers from giving preferential treatment to younger workers to the exclusion of older workers when it comes to hiring, pay, benefits such as health insurance, job assignments and promotions.

• Does not prevent an employer from favoring older employees over younger employees.

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA)

• Applies to businesses that gross $500,000 or more per year and to other specific types of businesses.

• Provides that qualified employees who work more than 40 hours in a week should receive time-and-a-half pay for the overtime.

• Does not provide regulation as to the number and duration of breaks an employer must allow, but individual states may do so.

• Specifies minimum wage requirements.

FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT (FMLA)

• Applies only to employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the workplace.

• Applies only to employees who have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and 1,250 hours in the year preceding the leave.

• Provides that employers must allow employees to take up to a 12-week unpaid leave of absence for qualified family and medical reasons.

• Preserves qualified employees' positions for the duration of the leave.

• Employees generally cannot be punished or demoted for taking valid FMLA leave.

EMPLOYEE RIGHTS IN THE WORKPLACE

• All employees have basic rights in the workplace. Those rights include privacy and freedom from illegal discrimination. In addition to federal law, each state has enacted laws to protect the rights of workers. A job applicant also has certain rights even prior to being hired as an employee. Those rights include the right to be free from discrimination based on age, gender, race, national origin or religion during the hiring process.

• In most states, employees have a right to privacy in the workplace. This right to privacy can include one's personal possessions, including handbags or briefcases, and storage lockers accessible only by employees. Employees also have a right to privacy in their personal telephone conversations. Employees have very little privacy or right to privacy, however, in their messages on company e-mail and their Internet usage on the employer's computer system.

• There are certain pieces of information that an employer may not seek out concerning a potential applicant or an employee. An employer may not conduct a credit or background check of an employee or a prospective employee unless the employer notifies the employee or applicant in writing that it intends to do so and receives authorization to do so.

• In addition, most private employers may not require an employee or a prospective employee to submit to a polygraph (lie-detector test). There are very narrow exceptions to this rule if the employee is suspected of being involved in an incident that caused economic loss or injury to the employer or if the employee is being considered to drive an armored car, work for a security company, work with controlled substances or work in national security.

WORKER ADJUSTMENT AND RETRAINING NOTIFICATION (WARN)

• WARN offers protection by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs.

• In general, employers are covered by WARN if they have 100 or more employees, not counting employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months and not counting employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week. Private, for-profit employers and private, nonprofit employers are covered, as are public and quasi-public entities which operate in a commercial context and are separately organized from the regular government. Regular Federal, State, and local government entities which provide public services are not covered.

 

What Triggers the Notice

• Plant Closing: A covered employer must give notice if an employment site (or one or more facilities or operating units within an employment site) will be shut down, and the shutdown will result in an employment loss (as defined later) for 50 or more employees during any 30-day period. This does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer. These latter groups, however, are entitled to notice (discussed later).

• Mass Layoff: A covered employer must give notice if there is to be a mass layoff which does not result from a plant closing, but which will result in an employment loss at the employment site during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees, or for 0-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer's active workforce. Again, this does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer. These latter groups, however, are entitled to notice (discussed later).

• Sale of Businesses: In a situation involving the sale of part or all of a business, the following requirements apply.

1. In each situation, there is always an employer responsible for giving notice.

2. If the sale by a covered employer results in a covered plant closing or mass layoff, the required parties (discussed later) must receive at least 60 days notice.

3. The seller is responsible for providing notice of any covered plant closing or mass layoff which occurs up to and including the date/time of the sale.

4. The buyer is responsible for providing notice of any covered plant closing or mass layoff which occurs after the date/time of the sale.

5. No notice is required if the sale does not result in a covered plant closing or mass layoff.

6. Employees of the seller (other than employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week) on the date/time of the sale become, for purposes of WARN, employees of the buyer immediately following the sale. This provision preserves the notice rights of the employees of a business that has been sold.

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