Employees in New York may benefit from learning more about whistleblower protections guaranteed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations. There are several laws in place that the OHSA can cite when penalizing employers who retaliate against whistleblowers. Retaliation can be described as protected employee activity that proves to be a contributing factor to an unfavorable personnel action conducted by an employer.
Is it legal to force a nurse to work mandatory overtime?
Nurses who work in New York might have questions about whether they may be forced to work overtime. There are limitations on the number of consecutive hours a nurse may work. Exemptions exist if certain circumstances are present. On-call time requires a nurse to be available to work by staying at the health care facility or in close proximity and may not be used in lieu of mandatory overtime.
New York employment law and employee mistakes
New York residents are likely familiar with cameras placed on traffic signals to record the license plate numbers of vehicles that fail to stop at a red light. The subsequent tickets are sent by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle, but some may wonder who is responsible for payment when the vehicle in question is owned by a company but being driven by an employee. In these situations, New York employment law states that payment is the responsibility of the employer.
Domestic workers entitled to overtime pay, time off
In 2010, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was enacted as part of the New York State Human Rights Law. It says that a person who works in the home of another person is guaranteed certain protections. Employers are required to provide compensation at or above certain minimumsand must meet requirements regarding overtime pay, unemployment insurance and time off.
How companies can respond to New York whistle-blowers
In August 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the first award to an employee under its whistle-blowing program. While the case was met with great interest, it also showed a flaw in the program by inadvertently releasing reference material in the case, which was filed in August 2013. This allowed the media to connect the dots and find out who the complaint was made against.
New York enacts new protections for interns
New York is the fourth jurisdiction in the nation to make it illegal for employers to engage in any retaliatory or otherwise illegal employment practices against unpaid interns or those applying for unpaid internships. The other three jurisdictions to have such employment discrimination laws are Washington, D.C., New York City and Oregon. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Act into law on July 22, and it took effect immediately.
Government investigating workplace claims by VA nurse
New York employees may be interested in the story of one Albany nurse's struggle against workplace retaliation after reporting the abuses of other employees to her supervisors. The woman is one of a large group of Veterans Administration employees from various facilities prompting a government investigation into their claims.
Undocumented workers have labor rights
The New York-based Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund recently noted that illegal immigrant workers are entitled to many of the same rights as legal workers. Among other employee rights, undocumented immigrants are entitled to minimum wage protection and overtime pay. For these types of benefits, the person's immigration status does not matter. The issue arose after a rally on June 11 protesting wage theft abuses and reporters said that workers are not protected under these laws.
Can you work there? Your past boss may say 'no'
When you stop working for a company, you expect to be largely unrestricted in where you work next. Sure, you need to have the qualifications for the job, but your previous employer generally has no say in which company or employer you can work for, right? Unfortunately, that is not always the case, especially as more employers include noncompete agreements as conditions for employment.
New York Times editor claims she was fired due to pay complaints
New York residents may have heard that Jill Abramson, former editor for the New York Times has been fired from her job. What they may not know, however, is that Abramson may have been the victim of retaliation after she complained about the pay gap between herself as a woman and a former male editor.
