It's the law!

A recent post about a requirement (generally not true) to have two employees working at all times brought this to mind: What's your favorite misconception firmly held by employees about employment law? I'll start out with a couple:
An employer cannot fire someone without a good reason (see discussion about 'at will' employment)
You have to give me a lunch break (not in Wisconsin for employees 18 and over)

On the other hand, there is a requirement in WI that employers provide 'adequate seating' for employees in manufacturing, mechanical, and mercantile establishments to use when employees aren't performing their duties. I've often wondered if you didn't provide breaks or lunch, whether that would negate the need to provide seating??

What are your favorites?



Comments

  • 26 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • "No, I make my personal phone calls during regular hours or else I won't get my full break time which is required by law." (BTW, I was forced to choke back a few words before I could adequately respond.)
  • The desk, the computer, the telephone belong to me and not the company.
    Every illness is covered by FMLA.
    You can never terminate anyone over the age of 40.
  • The law says you have to give me a smoke break every two hours...
  • "I've been paying this damned unemployment most all my life and you ain't gonna keep me from getting it."

    "I just want you to know, I've got me a lawyer, and he says as long as nobody can say I appeared to be hurt already, I can always claim it happened right here at work. He said just as long as I didn't get the cast until one day after I told the supervisor about it. So I went by those rules."
  • " My Mom told me I can do anything I want. I am a minor and if you have a problem with me being late, she siad you can deal with HER!"
  • What do you mean I'm tardy? There's a seven minute grace period!

    But no one told me that I couldn't wear a see through shirt and no bra.
  • My favorite misconception is the belief that having or threatening to hire an attorney really scares me. :-S
  • At the end of FMLA (especially if it's work comp related)...

    That's really nice. You're firing me because I'm sick. I'll see what my lawyer has to say about this.
  • Threatening to call the Department of Labor on the company if something doesn't go their way. (I love the look on their faces when I hand them the telephone).
  • In interviews when I tell someone that their social security card is "invalid" (fake), they tell me that they lost their original and "Yes, it is a good number", so they just have this illegal replica until they get their card. "I'll bring it in to you tomorrow." They never come back. (They want me to believe that they lost their legal card so they went to the trouble to pay someone to make them an illegal card when they can go to the Social Security office and get a new one, for FREE?!) Also, when people get miffed because I tell them their Resident Alien card is fake, they tell me that I can call the INS. So I do. I never see those people again either.
  • My favorite misconception pops up once a year, and it's due in a few weeks...

    "Hey, my taxes have to be filed tomorrow and I lost my W-2 so you are required to Fed-Ex a new one to me!"

    or

    "Yes, I know it's 4:30 p.m. on April 15. There had better be a replacement W-2 waiting for me at the receptionist's desk when I get there in 15 minutes."
  • I just got this one last week after RIF. He said his attorney told him that we couldn't fire him because he is a single parent. The attorneys says we have to let the guy go that lives with his parents. The guy who lives with his parents never misses work. The guy we let go missed 160 hours (paid sick time) in 15 months. But we aren't being fair!
  • The guy we let
    >go missed 160 hours (paid sick time) in 15 months.

    Mentel: Be very, very certain that you DO NOT use that as an analysis point in your reasoning. If you did get down to the performance level or discipline analysis in determining who would be let go, you would not be wise to let 'sick leave' enter the equation. The old 'thin ice' thing surfaces here.
  • Oh here's another one - recent. A full time employee who works in a group who is expected to rotate one day a week to be the "late" employee, told me that he has to leave early EVERY day to pick up his child from a daycare that closes at 5PM sharp. His wife also cannot flex her schedule to pick up the child one day a week. He told me if we didn't allow him to do this, we are discriminating against him because he is male and he is black. (Go figure). He based this on the fact that part time white women could flex their schedules to accomodate their pregnancies and child care (maybe that's why they are part time, huh?). Also, I've never seen any male, black or white, who took maternity leave.


  • ......He also lied to you about the daycare closing promptly at 5:00 sharp. Ain't no way. x:(
  • That's what I thought too, Don. Unless this person has a very select clientele (and very few of those), I don't see how any daycare could close at 5PM when most folks don't get out the door until then (if they are lucky).
  • I think just to prove the point I would call the daycare and ask, "If I were to select your center for my child, can you tell me the latest I can arrive there to pick him up?" I'll bet a Coke they tell you 5:45 or something like that. Maybe even a bit later.
  • Hey Rockie,
    If I am not mistaken though, didn't I read it on this website that they talked about men taking off FMLA to care for a newborn child and it was allowed for them? The only thing was if the man and woman both worked for the same company they could only take 12 weeks between them..so technically a man COULD take off for maternity leave..couldn't he?
  • [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-07-03 AT 03:52PM (CST)[/font][p]Favorite laws: (a/k/a misconceptions)

    "Must give me a 15 minute break every four hours." (Not in Missouri!)

    "FMLA will let me take off when I want for my elective procedure and you have to work around it."

    And my VERY FAVORITE..........

    "I'd like to exercise my rights and waive my FICA." (A $28,000/yr employee)

    Zanne




  • We recently went through a huge change over in medical insurance, and due to cost, one of the options seriously considered was not offering any medical insurance at all. Thankfully, this did not come to pass, but I can't count the number of employees that informed me that we could not not offer medical insurance - it is the law that any employer with more than x amount of people must offer health insurance! Hmmmm... 'fraid not!

    In the same vein, we had one employee demand that we *pay him* for not taking our health insurance coverage. Said that it was his right as an employee to be reimbursed for the cost of the insurance that he had found on his own...!

    "It's kind of fun to do the impossible..." ~ Walt Disney
  • [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-22-03 AT 03:02PM (CST)[/font][p]I have an employee on medical leave who is going to be unable to return to work because of deteriorating overall condition that leaves him unable to physically perform his job as attested to by not one, not two, but four separate physicians. When I was explaining our long term disability to him, he suddenly started asking me about his medical benefits. I told him they'd be good through May 30, at which time he would be offered COBRA, explained what it was and how much it would cost. He said, "Well since you're the ones not letting me come back to work, I heard you have to pay to keep my medical benefits for me." Hmmmmm - wonder what law he was reading? x0:)
  • Speaking of insurance and employees thinking they're entitled to things they're not, here's my contribution:

    The group insurance program for state employees in Texas is called the Uniform Group Insurance Program. One evening, a custodian who was emptying the HR wastebaskets found some paperwork with this title and passed it on to a cook. Next day, the cook came into HR and demanded indignantly, "Why didn't y'all tell us we were supposed to get insurance for our uniforms!?"


  • I don't know why, but everywhere I've worked I've been told by someone: "you have to have a couch in the ladies room." I looked and looked years ago, but could find no such requirement. My favorite was the 21-year old employee who looked me right in the eye and said: "You can't make me work overtime, it's a federal law." He followed this up by asking how he could become a supervisor!
  • Actually, there was time when many states and/or localities required couches in ladies rooms because women were fragile creatures subject to swooning spells.
  • Yes, I believe there is even a piece of furniture calling a "fainting couch".
  • After a RIF, one of the employees found out that I was calling employees back to work. She called me and when I told her that I had filled all of the positions, she accused me of discriminating against her because she was Russian.
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