Legal Blog

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Is a Business Legally Required to Follow its Own Policies/Handbook?

Business owners in Texas should have written policies and, ideally, an employee handbook that compiles all of the policies and expectations within the workplace. Employee handbooks can provide important information and protections for the employee and employer alike. Yet situations might arise in which an employer believes that a particular policy that is written in the employee handbook should not apply, or that a specific workplace policy the employer created previously should not be followed in a specific circumstance. In these types of scenarios, is a business legally required to follow its own policies or employee handbook? The answer to Read more
Simon Paschal May 17, 2021 , , , , , 9132 0 Read more
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Damages to Expect in Common Employment Law Cases

When facing a workplace claim or lawsuit from a current or former employee, it is useful for employers to know the types of damages they may be expected to pay in common employment law cases. Generally speaking, whether an employee has filed a wage and hour violation claim, an employment discrimination case, a retaliation case, or a wrongful termination lawsuit, the purpose of the remedy is to put that employee in the same position that she or he would have been in but for the violation (although punitive damages are also often available). When an employee wins a claim against Read more
Simon Paschal April 29, 2021 , , , , , 9091 0 Read more
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EEOC Releases Changes to Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination

Employers in Texas should be aware of the recent compliance manual changes from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on religious discrimination in the workplace. The changes to the compliance manual focus specifically on religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As the EEOC explains, “under Title VII, an employer is prohibited from discriminating because of religion in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment, and also cannot ‘limit, segregate, or classify’ applicants or employees based on religion ‘in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any Read more
Simon Paschal April 26, 2021 , , , , , 9168 0 Read more
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Department of Labor Audit Checklist: Wage & Hour Audit

Employers in Texas are required to comply with federal wage and hour laws, among other laws and regulations, enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Audits conducted by the Department of Labor can focus on a variety of employment law issues such as wage and hour rules, workplace safety, and family and medical leave requirements. As an employer, you should know that the DOL can initiate an audit at any time. Accordingly, it is important to be prepared for a DOL wage and hour audit. The following are issues that you should consider as you put together a DOL Read more
Simon Paschal March 25, 2021 , , , 10913 0 Read more
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Understanding the Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Attorney General Paxton

Who is an employer in Texas and who counts as an employee according to the Texas Whistleblower Act? Those are questions that surround the lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is facing claims from four former aides under Texas whistleblower law. According to a recent report in the Texas Tribune, those four former aides to Paxton have alleged that “they were fired in retaliation for telling authorities they believe Paxton had done illegal favors for a political donor, Austin real estate investor Nate Paul.” The allegations made by those former aides resulted in an FBI investigation, but Paxton’s Read more
Simon Paschal March 15, 2021 , , , , , 397 0 Read more
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Simon | Paschal Says: Be Careful with Kindness

It’s that time again for another Simon | Paschal Says opinion column.  This opinion deals with kindness and the pitfalls employers face when they are too kind.  Before you fire off that angry email to us about how important kindness is, let us clarify what me mean by being careful with kindness.  First and foremost, we advocate an open and inclusive workplace that treats all employees with respect and treats all employees like important and valuable members of the workforce.  That is not the kindness we are talking about in this column.  The kindness you must avoid is the kindness Read more
Simon Paschal March 12, 2021 , , , , , 381 0 Read more
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The “Post” COVID Workplace

Anyone that has followed the news understands that COVID is not going away any time soon.  So while we think it’s important to talk about the “post” COVID workplace, it’s not really all that “post.”  That said, there are some new normals and some considerations of which all employers should be mindful. Vaccinations With the vaccination of Americans in process, many employers have questions regarding what they can and cannot do with respect to the COVID vaccine.  Employers are permitted to require employees to get vaccinated.  However, employers must make reasonable accommodations based on ADA-protected disabilities and sincerely held religious Read more
Simon Paschal March 12, 2021 , , , , , 328 0 Read more
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The NLRB in a Non-Union Setting

Many non-union employers fail to realize that the National Labor Relations Act still applies to them.  While the NLRA is most often applied in the union setting, at its most basic level, the NLRA protects the right of employees to engage in protected concerted activity.  Such protected concerted activity can occur in a union or non-union setting.  With that in mind, we want to go over a few of the more common situations in which the NLRA affects the non-union workplace. One of the most common affected areas is employee handbooks.  Many employers remember several years ago when the National Read more
Simon Paschal March 12, 2021 , , , , , 317 0 Read more
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Do Texas Employers Have to Pay Employees for Work Missed Due to Inclement Weather?

The recent 2021 winter storm in Texas shut down a large portion of the state for the week.  Lack of electricity forced the closing of many businesses.  Those businesses that were able to stay open had numerous absences from employees who could not travel to work because of the snow and ice or could not work remotely because of the lack of electricity at home.  A common question from employers is whether or not they are required to pay employees for work due to inclement weather. The answer depends on a couple factors.  First, is the employee a non-exempt (often, Read more
Simon Paschal March 12, 2021 , , , , , , , , 546 0 Read more
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Transacting Business in Multiple States

Are you registered to do business in every state in which you provide services? What about those states in which your client is based but you provide all your services remote? Or that state in which you have a remote employee who moved away from your corporate office when most businesses transitioned to remote workers in response to COVID-19?  For a lot of business owners, they assume that once they have established their company entity, they are free to transact business as they please (whether they established the entity in the state where their corporate office is located or in Read more
Simon Paschal March 12, 2021 , , , , , , , , , , 381 0 Read more
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