The law is for everyone including your boss. The National Labor Relations Act and several other statutes that are supervised by the US Equal Employment Opportunity safeguard employees from unfavorable working environments and employee discrimination. There are various other local and state regulations that employers should follow.
There’s no doubt about the fact that employment laws are complex enough and there are times when employers try to violate these laws. They do this because they fail to understand the obligations. If you’re someone who has wondered, “Can my employer do that?” here are a few things that you should know.
Is your employer violating any workplace laws?
All workplace laws don’t apply to every employee and business. A few small businesses might be exempt from some requirements and all employers may not have similar wage protections as workers who work on an hourly basis. Here are a few things your boss can never do.
- Ask forbidden questions during job interviews
There are a few employers that break laws even before they hire you. As per the EEOC, there are numerous laws that forbid different kinds of discrimination. In most cases, your boss can’t use such factors while hiring you or even ask them in the interview process. During a job application, your boss can’t ask about your marital status, age, or religion.
- Ask employees to sign non-compete agreements
These days non-compete agreements are famous and these agreements usually dictate that employees can’t work for a competitor for a certain period of time after leaving the company. For instance, instead of saying that a medical administrator can’t work with any other health care facility, they say that the person can’t work within a 20-mile radius of their previous company.
- Not pay you minimum wages or overtime
Employee compensation isn’t a simple thing. There is a huge body of law that governs the way employees should be paid. The overtime rules are usually straightforward. There are some states that have complicated laws like California, Alaska, and Nevada that need overtime pay for all employees who work for more than 8 hours in a day.
- Promise to confirm the job of an unpaid intern
Companies can wish to attract interns by making grandiose promises of confirming their internship after 3 months. But this is something against the labor laws. If this is done, the employer could run afoul of state and federal minimum wage laws. Instead of this being a learning experience, this internship could be viewed as illegal or an unpaid training period.
- Consider you as an independent contractor and treat you like an employee
When you hire independent contractors rather than employees, this is a way businesses can keep down costs. It lets them avert paying benefits and other employment taxes. Nevertheless, businesses can segregate workers as independent contractors while they are actually simple employees.
Therefore, just as there are Call Center Boot-up Class Action Lawyers, you can also seek the help of employment lawyers who can help you with these issues.
