Employment law

1. Wilma enjoyed her 40-hour per week job at Acme Motor Filters (AMF) because it kept her busy while her husband Fred was deployed to the Middle East as a Navy Corpsman. Wilma was one of several ‘Navy wives’ among the 200 employees of AMF She had gotten into the routine of her job for a year before her Fred left, and now he was nearly finished with a year’s deployment and would be home soon. She was shocked, then, to hear that Fred had contracted a virus in his cardiac muscle that would allow him to return early, but that he would be bedridden for a long time.

Wilma wants to keep her job, but has to be with Fred full time for a couple of months when he returns, so that he can become acclimatized to being at home in his condition. Once it’s set up, she can return to work. Based on these facts, will Wilma be able to take FMLA time off to care for Fred? Choose the best answer below.

A. Yes,

B. Yes, if she has accumulated sufficient personal time off (including both vacation time and sick leave) to cover her absence.

C. No, unless she has accumulated sufficient personal time off (including both vacation time and sick leave) to cover her absence.

D. No.
10 points
QUESTION 2
1. Edward Employee began work at the large corporation’s local plant on January 5th. All went well for almost a year, until he was notified on December 10th that his wife would have surgery the following January 15th. In accordance with company policy, he promptly notified his supervisor that he would need FMLA leave beginning on January 15, for at least four weeks. The supervisor denied the leave because Edward had not been employed for a year when he made the request. Which of the following is most correct?

A. Edward cannot legally request the leave, because he has not yet completed his first year of work.

B. Edward can legally request the leave before he has been employed, so long as the leave would not begin until after he had been an employee for at least a year.

C. Edward can legally request the leave, but it cannot be granted until he has accrued at least one pay period of sick leave and/or vacation time.

D. The leave will not be granted because a future planned event is not an ’emergency’ under the FMLA.
10 points
QUESTION 3
1. If an eligible employee experiences a qualifying event and notifies her employer that she needs to take the leave, the employer…

A. … may grant the leave if the absence of the employee will not compromise the operational effectiveness of the employer’s enterprise.

B. … may grant the leave until the absence of the employee compromises the operational effectiveness of the employer’s enterprise.

C. …must grant the leave in the amount requested by the employee up to a total of 12 weeks over a 12-month period.

D. …must grant the leave in the amount requested by the employee up to a total of 12 weeks over a 12-month period and pay the employee at the employee’s straight-time rate, or for non-hourly employees, at the average weekly wage rate the employee earned during the past six months.
10 points
QUESTION 4
1. Edith is scheduled to work 8-5 with an hour lunch, Monday through Friday. She is not an FLSA-exempt employee, does not belong to a union and there is no contractual provision in her employment that addresses hours of work or when overtime is paid. One week, she works the following hours –
Monday – 8 hours
Tuesday – 11 hours
Wednesday – 4 hours
Thursday – 10 hours
Friday – 8 hours

How many hours will she be paid at the regular rate, and how many hours at the overtime rate?
A. She will be paid 40 hours at regular rate and 1 hour at overtime rate

B. She will be paid 36 hours at regular rate and 5 hours at overtime rate

C. She will be paid 41 hours at regular rate and 1 hour at overtime rate

D. There is not sufficient information provided to determine this.
10 points
QUESTION 5
1. Callie had worked many hours doing the clerical tasks that supported the new computer system startup. For the last four weeks, she had averaged working 50 hours per week, and was simply exhausted. Callie and her supervisor had discussed the startup, and agreed that she could have her choice of either being paid overtime for the excess hours worked, or she could take those hours off later, after the computer system was up and running. Callie decided she’d prefer to take every Friday off for the next five weeks. Which of the following is most correct about this agreement?

A. This agreement is permissible if Callie is an FLSA non-exempt private sector employee.

B. This agreement is permissible if Callie is a government employee and there is no conflicting collective bargaining agreement provisions.

C. This agreement is permissible if Callie is not a government employee and there is no conflicting collective bargaining agreement provisions.

D. All three of the above are true.
10 points
QUESTION 6
1. Henry is scheduled to work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with an hour off for lunch from noon until 1 p.m. He is an hourly employee for Acme Blueprint, and is not subject to any union or other contractual modifications to ordinary employment at will. Henry has always been a conscientious employee and his work consistently exceeds the expectations of his supervisor, who is very pleased with Henry’s performance. Henry arrives at work at 7:30 a.m. He rides with his wife, who has to drop him off first then get to her job by 8 a.m. During that half hour between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., Henry gets a head start on his workload. He says that he can get more done during that half hour when no one else is around than he can at any other time.
Henry’s supervisor explained to Henry that while he admires Henry’s work ethic, he can’t authorize Henry to work that extra half-hour because overtime is not authorized. Henry says he understands. The supervisor makes it clear that Henry should not do work during that time.
If Henry continues to do his work between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., which of the following outcomes is most likely to occur?

A. The company will be liable to pay Henry overtime for the half-hour each day that precedes his work shift.

B. The company will not be liable to pay Henry overtime for the half-hour each day that precedes his work shift, because Henry was instructed to not work.

C. The company will be liable to pay Henry overtime if his worked hours – including the time before 8 a.m. – totals more than 40 hours in the week.

D. The company will be liable to pay Henry overtime if his worked hours – including the time before 8 a.m. – totals more than 40 hours in the week, but only if Henry officially requests it.
10 points
QUESTION 7
1. Mary believes that she is paid less because she is a woman. She is paid $40,000 per year as a software technician at the local utility company, and she knows that two of her male counterparts doing the same job in adjacent utility service areas operated by other employers are paid $50,000 per year. She argues that her salary should be raised to $50,000 per year based on the fact that those men doing the job are paid more. Which of the following is most correct?

A. By demonstrating that the pay for the men in other nearby companies is $50,000 she will meet the requirements that fill require her employer to raise her pay to $50,000 also.

B. By demonstrating that the pay for the men in other nearby companies is $50,000 she will establish the prima facie case to justify raising her pay to $50,000.

C. By demonstrating that the pay for the men in other nearby companies is $50,000 she has successfully established them as comparators.

D. Based on the facts provided here, she has not established a prima facie case of pay discrimination.
10 points
QUESTION 8
1. Which of the following employee benefits do NOT require an employer contribution on behalf of employees?
A. Social Security

B. Retirement (401k and/or pension plan)

C. Unemployment Insurance

D. Workers’; Compensation
10 points
QUESTION 9
1. John worked in the construction industry and contributed to a pension plan offered by the construction workers’ union. During the time that John worked in construction and contributed to the plan, there was a provision that said that if a retired worker receiving a pension decided to return to work as a union or non-union construction worker”, the pension payments would be stopped for the period of time that the retiree was working in construction. John was careful to avoid taking any job that would suspend his payments, and finally took a job as a construction supervisor, not a worker. The union later changed the terms of the retirement plan to suspend payments if a pension recipient worked in any capacity in construction, not just as a construction worker. John believes that this has changed the terms of his retirement pension, and that it is an illegal act by the union and the pension fund. Which of the following is most correct?
A. This change is a violation of provisions of ERISA, and the union pension fund will not be able to suspend John’s pension because he works as a construction supervisor.

B. This change is a violation of provisions of ERISA, but the union pension fund will be able to suspend John’s pension because he has already retired and the relationship between John and the pension fund is no longer under the subject matter jurisdiction of ERISA.

C. This change is not a violation of provisions of ERISA, but the union pension fund will be able to suspend John’s pension because he works as a construction supervisor in another company, severing the privity of contract between John and the pension fund.

D. This change is not a violation of provisions of ERISA, and the union pension fund will be able to suspend John’s pension because he works as a construction supervisor.
10 points
QUESTION 10
1. Bill’s employer, General Motors, promised management employees that when they retire, they could stay on the company’s health insurance plan. After GM experienced substantial financial loss, it informed the retired management employees that they would no longer allow the employees to remain on the company’s health insurance plan, forcing many who were not yet eligible for Medicare to go without health care insurance, or to pay very high premiums for individual plans. Which of the following is most correct about this situation?

A. GM is free to discontinue a retiree’s eligibility for coverage under the company’s health care insurance plan.

B. GM is free to discontinue a management retiree’4 s eligibility for coverage under the company’s health care insurance plan.

C. GM must continue to offer coverage under the company’s health care insurance plan for those benefits not covered by Medicare.

D. GM is obligated to continue a retiree’s eligibility for coverage under the company’s health care insurance plan.

One day you will be considered an “older” worker. What strategies can you implement in the workplace to avoid being stereotyped or discriminated against? What attitudes and policies inhibit the effectiveness of companies’ strategies for hiring older workers?
How would you go about understanding what pay you should provide to people in your organization? What are the benefits you would provide and why?Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage query system at www.bls.gov see if you can find the typical pay for a particular job (your choice of jobs).