The Legality of Monitoring Employee Emails in Florida
Generally speaking, the monitoring of employees’ emails on an employer’s own server is legal in Florida. Here’s why. Florida Law No Florida statute expressly prohibits a company from monitoring emails on its own email server. Florida’s Security of Communications Act, section 934.01 et seq., Fla. Stat., provides in part that it is illegal to (a) intentionally […]
Drug and Alcohol Testing Under Florida Law
In Florida, private sector employers are neither required nor prohibited from requiring employees to undergo drug and alcohol testing. Florida has a Drug-Free Workplace Act that sets forth certain procedures for employers to follow in conducing job applicant testing, reasonable suspicion testing, follow-up testing, and routine fitness-for-duty testing. An employer is not required by law […]
Can Employers Impose Dress Codes and Appearance Standards?
Florida law does not expressly regulate private employers’ imposition of dress codes or personal appearance standards in the workplace. But certain limitations are imposed by federal and state laws prohibiting employment discrimination in the workplace. As noted by the EEOC, in most cases employers are required to make exceptions to their usual rules to permit employees […]
What Does Florida Law Say About Employee Surveillance and Searches?
The following is a discussion of the law in Florida on employee surveillance, monitoring, and searches, as it pertains to private-sector employers. Private employers are not constrained by the Constitutional limits of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Lebron v. Wilkins, 820 F. Supp. 2d 1273, 1282 (M.D. Fla. 2011) aff’d sub nom. Lebron v. Sec’y, […]
A Kinder And Gentler Federal Court?
As we draw closer to the end of the Obama administration and the beginning of a new presidential administration, the question many employment lawyers should be asking themselves is whether and to what extent the face of the federal judiciary has changed, and whether any such change will have or continue to have an effect […]
Employers, Don’t Forget The EEOC Carve-Out In Your Mandatory Arbitration Agreement
This blog post originally appeared in Forbes.com. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission likes to protect its turf. While the EEOC files relatively few lawsuits – it filed 167 lawsuits in fiscal year 2014, while it processed over 88,000 charges – the EEOC will not hesitate to take actions against employers that prevent employees from filing […]
Helpful Hints For Employees Experiencing Work-Related Issues
First and foremost, employees should familiarize themselves with their employee handbook and follow the steps in it, particularly complaint procedures. Too often, employees in employment law cases are challenged about the fact that they did not avail themselves of the company’s internal complaint procedures. In other words, one would expect that if an employee has […]
Employees Subjected to Domestic Violence Entitled to Leave From Work
Employees of companies who have 50 or more workers, and who have been employed for 3 or more months are entitled to take up to 3 working days of leave from work in any 12-month period if the employee or a family or household member of an employee is the victim of domestic violence or sexual violence. The […]
Have an Occupationally Safe and Retaliation-Free New Year
Whistleblower complaints under the Occupational Safety and Health Act are up 45% since 2005, according to statistics released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”). So employers should be aware of what constitutes legally protected activity under the OSH Act when deciding whether to take an adverse action against an employee. Section 11(c) of […]
English-Only Policies in the Workplace: Are They Legal? Are They Smart?
As I cast my ballot in this year’s election – a ballot that in my home of Broward County, Florida is printed in English, Spanish, and Creole – I was reminded of an employment law issue that often leaves employers scratching their heads: Can employers require their employees to speak English in the workplace, or […]