Portland Employment / Labor Attorney.
An employer is free to compensate its employees under any wage or salary structure it wants. No positions exist for which an employer must pay by either hourly wage or salary. An employer does not escape minimum wage and overtime obligations merely because an employee is paid on a salary basis, and it might be that the employer therefore believes that it is legally restricted from compensating an employee on a salary basis who, for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act, is nonexempt (...
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Most employment is at-will, meaning an employer can terminate at any time for any reason. As such, anything short of termination, such as "bullying" or false accusations are also legally acceptable. The law does not guarantee a good workplace or a good employer. All it does is make unlawful such practices when they are motivated by certain "protected classifications," such as age, race, sex, disability, religion, whistleblowing (i.e., reporting illegal conduct by the employer), safety...
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Unfortunately, the law does not protect against a bad boss. Absent a contract for a term of employment, the employment-at-will rule controls, which means the employer can terminate at any time for any reason (so long as it is not an unlawful reason) just as the employee can quit at any time for any reason. Because the employer can terminate at will, it can do anything short of termination as well -- such as make the workplace a very bad place to work. Despite the above general rule, some...
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Absent an express contract providing for a set salary, not subject to reduction, an employer can change the hours, compensation, and working conditions any time. It may do so only going forward. It cannot reduce compensation for time already worked. It cannot also reduce compensation as a way to try to get an employee to quit because of some protected conduct or status (such as age, race, disability, request for medical leave, workers' compensation claim, etc.), but if it is for some...
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It is a legitimate basis for a prospective employer to discriminate between potential employees who arrive on time for interviews and those that don't. Even if you actually arrived at the correct time, if the potential employer believed you were late, it would not violate any law to hold it against you. Discrimination is only illegal when it is because of some protected classification, such as age, race, sex, disability, etc. Unless one of those protected classifications is involved,...
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An employer may not retaliate for an employee's taking medical leave, but medical leave rights are not earned until an employee has been working for at least 180 days with at least an average 25 hours per week with the employer. Also, small employers are not covered by medical leave laws unless they have at least 25 employees. Even if an employee has a medically approved absence, the employer may terminate for any reason other than the absence. For example, if an employee violates a company...
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An employer may not make payroll deductions for business losses. This often comes up with breakage, which an employer tries to deduct from an employee's pay, which is illegal. An employer owes the employee the agreed upon wages, regardless of losses. Any claim of the employer against the employee legally must be done through the courts, not by unilateral action by the employer. On the other hand, an employer does have the right to change pay, but only going forward. Once wages or salary is...
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The National Employment Lawyers Association website is also a good resource for experienced employment lawyers, at nela.org
An employer is not lawfully permitted to take a deduction for damage or breakage. Doing so would be an unlawful deduction under Oregon statute ORS 652.610(3), which would provide the employee the right to sue to collect actual damages or $200, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorneys fees, costs, and a prevailing party fee (up to $500 or more) under ORS 652.615. The above comments do not constitute specific legal advice but are offered for general discussion purposes only. For...
The use of recording devices is addressed by both federal and state statutes. Violating these statutes can result in both a civil suit and also criminal charges. Most statutes were enacted to cover wiretapping and eavesdropping, but the courts have uniformly applied them as well to electronic (i.e., "tape recording") recording of any conversations, including phone calls and in-person conversations, by private persons. It is usually unlawful to record a meeting you are not involved in....
