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Organizations and bosses can forestall and slow the spread of COVID-19 inside the working environment. Managers ought to react such that considers the degree of infection transmission in their networks and overhaul their business reaction designs varying. Managers ought to follow the White House Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, a staged methodology dependent on current degrees of transmission and human services limit at the state or neighborhood level, as a feature of continuing business tasks. Business activity choices ought to be founded on both the degree of infection transmission in the network and your status to ensure the security and wellbeing of your workers and clients.

Organizations and managers are urged to arrange with state and local health authorities to acquire opportune and precise data to advise suitable reactions. Nearby conditions will impact the choices that general wellbeing authorities make with respect to network level methodologies.

As an employer, if your business tasks were intruded, continuing typical or staged exercises presents a chance to refresh your COVID-19 readiness, reaction, and control plans. All businesses should actualize and refresh as fundamental an arrangement that:

• Is explicit to your working environment,
• identifies all zones and occupation undertakings with expected presentations to COVID-19, and
• Includes control measures to kill or lessen such introductions.

Talk with your workers about arranged changes and look for their information. Furthermore, work together with workers and associations to successfully impart significant COVID-19 data.

Reducing spread of COVID-19

Everything managers need to consider how best to diminish the spread of COVID-19 and lower the effect in your work environment. This ought to incorporate exercises to prevent and lessen transmission among workers,

• maintain solid business tasks, and
• maintain a solid workplace.
• Forestall and Reduce Transmission Among Employees

Screen government, state, and neighborhood general wellbeing interchanges about COVID-19 guidelines, direction, and suggestions and guarantee that laborers approach that data.

Urge workers to stay at home

Effectively urge debilitated workers to remain at home:

• Employees who have indications ought to inform their boss and remain at home.
• Sick workers ought not come back to work until the measures to stop home confinement are met, in meeting with human services suppliers.
• Employees who are well however who have a sick relative at home with COVID-19 ought to inform their boss and follow CDC and state and local suggested safety measures.

Virtual and In-person Health Checks

Consider leading every day face to face or virtual health checks (e.g., side effect or potentially temperature screening) of workers before they enter the office, as per state and nearby general wellbeing specialists and, if accessible, your word related wellbeing administrations:

• If executing face to face wellbeing checks, lead them securely and consciously. Businesses may utilize social separating, hindrance or parcel controls, or individual defensive gear (PPE) to ensure the screener. In any case, dependence on PPE alone is a less powerful control and is more hard to execute, given PPE deficiencies and preparing necessities.
• Complete the health checks such that keeps up social distancing rules, for example, giving different screening sections into the structure.
• Follow direction from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with respect to secrecy of clinical records from wellbeing checks.
• To forestall stigma and separation in the working environment, make worker wellbeing screenings as private as could reasonably be expected. Try not to make judgments of hazard dependent on race or nation of cause and make certain to keep up secrecy of every individual’s clinical status and history.

Separate sick workers

Employees who seem to have manifestations upon landing in work or who become sick during the day ought to promptly be isolated from different workers, clients, and guests, and sent home.

Have a method set up for the sheltered vehicle of a representative who gets debilitated while at work. The representative may should be moved home or to a medicinal services supplier.

Make a move if a worker is suspected or affirmed to have COVID-19 disease

As a rule, you don’t have to close down your office. In the event that it has been under 7 days since the sick worker has been in the office, close off any territories utilized for delayed timeframes by the debilitated individual:

• Wait 24 hours before cleaning and sterilizing to limit potential for different workers being presented to respiratory beads. On the off chance that holding up 24 hours isn’t plausible, hold up as far as might be feasible.
• During this holding up period, open external entryways and windows to build air course in these territories.

Cleaning suggestions

On the off chance that it has been 7 days or more since the debilitated worker utilized the office, extra cleaning and sterilization isn’t vital. Proceed with routinely cleaning and purifying all high-contact surfaces in the office.

• Clean filthy surfaces with cleanser and water before sterilizing them.
• To clean surfaces, use items that meet EPA measures for use against SARS-Cov-2external symbol, the infection that causes COVID-19, and are fitting for the surface.
• Always wear gloves and outfits proper for the synthetic substances being utilized when you are cleaning and purifying.
• You may need to wear extra PPE contingent upon the setting and disinfectant item you are utilizing. For every item you use, counsel and adhere to the producer’s directions for use.

Workers exposed to infection

Figure out which workers may have been presented to the infection and may need to play it safe. Inform workers of their conceivable introduction to COVID-19 in the working environment yet keep up secrecy as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Most working environments ought to follow the Public Health Recommendations for Community-Related Exposure and train conceivably presented workers to remain at home for 14 days, telecommuting if conceivable, and self-screen for manifestations.

Critical infrastructure work environments ought to follow the direction on Implementing Safety Practices for Critical Infrastructure Workers Who May Have Had Exposure to a Person with Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19. Bosses in basic framework additionally have a commitment to oversee conceivably presented laborers’ arrival to work in manners that best ensure the soundness of those laborers, their collaborators, and the overall population.

Educate your employees

Instruct workers about steps they can take to ensure themselves at work and at home. Encourage workers to follow any new arrangements or systems identified with disease, cleaning and sterilizing, and work gatherings and travel. Advise workers to:

• Stay home on the off chance that they are debilitated, but to get clinical consideration, and to realize what to do in the event that they are sick.
• Inform their boss in the event that they have a sick relative at home with COVID-19 and to realize what to do on the off chance that somebody in their house is debilitated.
• Wash their hands regularly with cleanser and water for in any event 20 seconds or to utilize hand if cleanser and water are not accessible. Advise workers that if their hands are obviously filthy, they should utilize cleanser and water over hand sanitizer.
• Avoid contacting their eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Cover their mouth and nose with a tissue when you hack or sniffle, or utilize within their elbow. Toss utilized tissues into no-contact garbage bins and quickly wash hands with cleanser and water for at any rate 20 seconds. In the event that cleanser and water are not accessible, use hand. Become familiar with hacking and sniffling decorum on the CDC site.
• Practice routine cleaning and cleansing of as often as possible contacted items and surfaces, for example, workstations, consoles, phones, handrails, and door handles. Messy surfaces can be cleaned with cleanser and water preceding purification. To sterilize, use items that meet EPA’s measures for use against SARS-CoV-2external symbol, the reason for COVID-19, and are fitting for the surface.
• Avoid utilizing other workers’ telephones, work areas, workplaces, or other work apparatuses and gear, whenever the situation allows. Clean and purify them when use.
• Practice social removing by evading huge get-togethers and looking after separation (at any rate 6 feet) from others whenever the situation allows.

Practice social distancing

Set up approaches and practices for social separating. Adjust your workspace to support laborers and clients keep up social removing and genuinely separate representatives from one another and from clients, whenever the situation allows. Here are a few techniques that organizations can utilize:

• Implement adaptable worksites (e.g., telecommuting).
• Implement adaptable work hours (e.g., rotate shifts to restrict the quantity of representatives in the work environment simultaneously).
• Increase physical space between representatives at the worksite by changing the workspace.
• Increase physical space among workers and clients (e.g., pass through help, physical boundaries, for example, parcels).
• Use signs, tape marks, or other obvious signals, for example, hued tape on the floor, set 6 feet separated, to show where to stand when physical hindrances are unrealistic.
• Implement adaptable gathering and travel choices
• Prohibit handshaking.
• Deliver services remotely (e.g., telephone, video, or web).
• Adjust your strategic approaches to decrease close contact with clients — for instance, by giving drive-through help.

Limit hazards to workers when arranging gatherings and social affairs

• Use videoconferencing or remotely coordinating when feasible for business related gatherings and social occasions.
• Cancel, alter, or delay huge business related gatherings or social affairs that can just happen face to face as per state and nearby guidelines and direction.
• When videoconferencing or remotely coordinating is absurd, hold gatherings in open, all around ventilated spaces proceeding to keep up a separation of 6 feet separated and wear face covers.

Traveling

Cutoff travel and exhort workers in case they have to travel must avoid potential risk and arrangements:

• Minimize insignificant travel and consider continuing unnecessary travel as per state and neighborhood guidelines and direction.
• Explicit travel data for voyagers going to and coming back from nations with tourism warnings, and data for aircrew, can be found on the CDC site.
• Advise workers to examine themselves for manifestations of COVID-19 preceding beginning travel and to inform their manager and remain at home on the off chance that they are debilitated.
• Ensure workers who become debilitated while voyaging or on brief task comprehend that they ought to inform their manager and instantly call a human services supplier for counsel if necessary.

Conclusion

The best controls are those that depend on designing arrangements, trailed by regulatory controls, at that point PPE. PPE is the least viable control strategy and the most hard to actualize. Worksites may need to actualize numerous integral controls from these segments to viably control the danger. Otherwise instead of controlling spread of COVID-19 you will be increasing transmission rates and infecting more people than normal.

We all are going through a very tough time and only helping each other can prove beneficial. Try your best to practice all social distancing rules and regulation not only at your organization but also at your home. take care of your loved ones, and people around you.

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California state legislation has been at the forefront by passing several bills that prevent sexual harassment in the workplace as well as within the state legislature. The package of bills was signed by the Governor of California, Edmund G. Brown on September 30th, 2018. These bills were put in place in support of women, children, working families in California. Many of these bills addressed sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace and provide sexual training requirement to address professional liability, settlement agreement and enforcement, and strengthen whistleblower protections by including new protection for state legislature workers.

Key Areas Covered By The New Bills

Frequently Asked Questions

Here, we explore the commonly asked questions that might help you:

i) What constitutes harassment at work place?

Harassment at workplace includes any discrimination against age, sex, pregnancy, religion, marital status among other factors.

United Employees Law Group

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The ADA is an act that was first passed in 1990. It’s a Federal Civil Rights Law that allows people to be protected against discrimination that is based solely on their disability. It would be nice if everyone could take advantage of the ADA, unfortunately, if you work at a job that has less than 15 employees, anything they do is not covered by the ADA.

The ADA doesn’t just cover employees getting fired due to discrimination, but it also deals with demotions, hiring, and accommodating an employee with a disability.

Today, we will be talking about the ADA and if they consider Color-Blindness to be a disability.

What Is Color-Blindness

Most people share the same color vision experiences. However, there are some people out there that have a deficiency in their vision when it comes to colors. This means that they see things differently. Instead of a blue sky, they may see something else. Instead of green grass, they see another color entirely – or no color for that matter.

There are different types of color-blindness too; Trichromacy, Anomalous Trichromacy, Dichromacy, Monochromacy (achromatopsia), etc. Each type brings along another set of issues.

According to studies, 8% of men and .5% of women that have Northern European ancestry will have color-blindness.

Does The ADA Cover Color-Blindness As A Disability?

The short answer: No, they don’t.

One of the biggest reasons behind this is that more often than not, color-blindness or not being able to see colors normally would not cause a person to not be able to do their job correctly. It also means that outside of work, for example, outdoor activities, don’t impair a person’s abilities to do these activities. So for example, if you have a desk job, color-blindness wouldn’t cause you to not be able to do your job properly.

Therefore; it is not considered a disability that is covered by the ADA.

The ADA considers a disability to be an impairment that can limit a person’s major life activities. This includes; sleeping, breathing, communicating at work, learning, reading, performing manual tasks, not being able to take care of oneself, not being able to hear properly, etc. For the most part, the disability is either going to be a mental or physical impairment.

What Vision Impairments Are Included?

The ADA doesn’t specifically list conditions where an individual can be protected because of vision impairment. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t be protected under another law for the EEOC.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does state that if you have a visual impairment, such as blindness, that cannot be repaired to a normal level or if you have another impairment where you have a loss of visual field, that you may be protected under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

You should also be aware that while the ADA might not be able to back you up because of color-blindness, your state laws might be able to. For example, if a person has color-blindness and is denied a job or a certain position, or if the employer refuses to allow for reasonable accommodation for the employee, that would be something to investigate further – or even hire a lawyer to see whether denying someone a job because of color-blindness is allowed or not.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Repina Valeriya/Zolnierek

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When it comes to email privacy, most courts in the US are going to side with the employer – not you.

Technology makes it possible for any business across the board to keep track of and read all workplace communications if you are connected to their network or use their equipment. For example; they would be able to read all communications from your computer, that includes emails and messages you receive on your desktop. They shouldn’t, however, be able to read items on your phone because you are on not on their network unless you are using their wi-fi!

If you doubt that your employer would be reading your emails, think again! According to a survey done in 2007 by the American Management Association, around 43% of companies DO monitor employee emails and around 28% of them have fired an employee due to the misuse of email! That was in 2007, imagine how far this number has jumped in the past 12 years and how much more skilled technology has become.

Work Email Accounts Are Not Private

If you have an email account with the employer you work for it’s pretty safe to assume that your email is not private. Your employer is completely allowed to and able to monitor your incoming and outgoing emails.

Reading Personal Emails On Company Equipment

If you have a job that provides equipment such as; a computer, a phone, a tablet, do not read your personal emails on them! This is just asking for trouble. If you absolutely need to check your personal email, do it on your own time and your own technology.

How Are Emails Monitored?

If your emails are being monitored, chances are they are going through one of these processes. It should be noted that while your employer might not be reading your messages right then and there, they could be “storing” them to read them later on or even use software to look for certain keywords that you have included in your emails.

1- KeyLogger Programs: These programs are pretty common these days, but you don’t just have to worry about it reading sent or received emails – but drafts too!

2- Some employers will create a copy of all messages when they arrive via email.

3- There are email systems that will copy all of the messages that run through them, automatically.

If you do get caught or your employer says something to you about it, it’s really in your best interest to just admit it rather than be caught in a lie IF they are monitoring your communications!

How To Stay In Check!

If you’re wondering how you can stay out of trouble at work, the solution is really simple.

– Keep work at work. You shouldn’t be emailing your wife about dinner, messaging your ex, talking to your friends or whatever else. You should only be sending work emails through your email address.

– Don’t access your personal email address, for example at Gmail, on work technology ie; your computer.

– Don’t forget your manners. Make sure that when you send out emails to your co-workers, even if they are friends, that you aren’t sending out anything that can be misunderstood or misconstrued.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Chinnapong/Rawpixel.com

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Age discrimination happens all too often in the workplace. The bad thing is that most of the time when it happens to someone they think it was just their time to go – they have no idea their boss just let them go or fired them because of their age!

What Is Ageism?

When talking about age discrimination, you’ll often hear the term ageism. This deals with stereotyping a person, based off of their age. Because ageism is a characteristic based off of discrimination laws, employers are not allowed to hire, promote, fire or base their wages on a persons age.

Examples Of Illegal Age Discrimination

It can sometimes be hard to tell when age discrimination happens. But for some people over the age of 40, there is an act called the Age Discrimination in Employment Act or ADEA. This act protects people that are 40 years of age and over that have had discrimination happen to them because of their age.

Here are some examples of age discrimination in the workplace:

• You didn’t get a job or a promotion because the employer wanted someone younger looking.

• You were fired from your job because the boss wanted to keep younger workers on who he/she could pay a lower wage to.

• You were passed over for a promotion because the boss wanted to hire someone younger outside of the company and said that he/she did so because they needed new blood for the workplace.

• The company went through a phase of layoffs in which most of the people that were laid off were older people and many of the employees who got to keep their jobs were younger yet had less job experience.

• Before you were let go or fired your boss made a remark about your age ie; you are over the hill, you are too old, you are ancient, you’ve been around since dinosaurs walked around!

If any of these issues have happened to you, you might have been a victim of age discrimination.

Stipulations Of The ADEA

While the ADEA is a nice law to have it does not work with every business and every individual. The only employees that the act specifically protects are companies that have over 20 employees. It also does not protect independent contractors.

So if you work for a small business or you work as a freelancer, the ADEA will not be able to protect you if you are a victim of age discrimination.

Valid Reasons For Firing An Elderly Worker

According to the ADEA, an employer needs a valid reason to let an older employee go – it absolutely cannot be related to their age. It can, however, be related to something like poor work performance.

For example, if an employee is older and works at a grocery store as a stocker and can no longer stock the shelves – this would be a valid reason to let the person go.

What To Do If You Have Been Discriminated Against

If you you have been involved in age discrimination and live in California, you can file a discrimination claim to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

You can also place a claim for age discrimination with the federal administrative agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

These two organizations work together on processing claims – so if you contact one or the other, both will be involved in your claim.

You can contact the DFEH here. You need to contact the HQ hotline to set up an appointment.

You can also contact the EEOC here. You also need to contact one of the 6 offices and set up an appointment.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Spotmatik Ltd./Billion Photos

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We all know what bullying is, but in the news lately, it always involves children at school. But, what about adults? Is workplace bullying actually a thing? Can you do anything about it as an employee? What defines bullying?

What Is Workplace Bullying?

According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, bullying in your place of work revolves around abusive conduct. This conduct can be categorized into; verbal, threats, intimidation and of course humiliation. These acts prevent the employee from getting their work done – even if it’s not directly. If it’s indirect; the employee is scared to come to work, scared to be around that person, etc this is also included.

A bully in the workplace doesn’t always include a boss. It might include a manager, supervisor, customer or even a vendor.

When Does Bullying Become Illegal?

As of right now, there are no laws against workplace bullying, unfortunately. Though a few states have tried to pass anti-bullying laws, no law has been passed yet. Just because there isn’t a law though, doesn’t make it right.

Regular bullying in the workplace becomes illegal when it comes to state laws that prohibit discrimination or harassment in a place of work. These discrimination and harassment laws protect you, the employee, against things like harassment that is based on sexual orientation, religion, sex, race, creed, disability, etc. If a person is basing the bullying on one of these characteristics – it could qualify as harassment that is illegal!

Because of these characteristics, most workplace bullying is proved to be harassment.

For example, if your boss bullies just women or states things that are directed towards only women, but never picks on the men this could be a sex-based claim.

California Trains Managers On Abusive Conduct

California recently became the very first state that requires larger businesses, companies, and corporations – with more than 50 employees, to train managers and supervisors on how to prevent bullying and abusive conduct at work.

While the training is a great place to start, it still does not make abusive conduct illegal and still does not allow you to sue your boss because of general abuse.

What Should I Do Now?

If workplace bullying is not against the law, what other options do you have? Well, for one, you should be reporting it to the HR department. Even though it’s not illegal, it’s really in your boss’s best interest to be aware of and stop workplace bullying.

Bullying in the workplace can cause so many issues; poor performance, the employee not showing up for work, poor morale in the workplace and decreased production. All in all workplace bullying does NOT benefit a company!

Always make sure that you keep notes about who is bullying you, what they said when it happened and what type of effects it had on you. If you missed work because of it or were sick because of the stress or started having medical issues because of the bullying – write it all down for your records.

If it does not stop or gets worse and you decide to take action, you will have proof of what was going on. If your boss does not take it seriously, it’s your right to talk to a lawyer. It should be noted, however, that you have only 180 days to file a complaint. After those 180 days is up, that’s it. You won’t get another chance unless it happens again.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Dusan Petkovic/ fizkes/ r.classen

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There are things that you need to be aware of when you leave a job so that you can ensure that you are being treated fairly. Below, we will be talking about layoffs, resignations and getting fired, how they impact you and what it means for you and your job as a past employee.

Getting Laid Off

Getting laid off is one of the worst ways to lose your job, especially since when these happen they always happen at the most inopportune times. Here are the issues you need to be concerned with when it comes to getting laid off and employee rights San Francisco.

– You are entitled to your pay from the time you were notified of being laid off until the actual date of the layoff. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 days or 2 weeks.

– If you work at an office, facility or business that employees more than 100 people, you will need to be notified of the layoff at least 60 days in advance. Usually, when a company has layoffs it’s due to plant closings, the business going under or mass layoffs.

– During the in-between time of being notified and the actual date of the layoff, you won’t only be required to get paid, but you will also still receive all of your benefits. Some companies also might allow you to continue on with their health insurance plan even if you have been laid off, but this is something you would need to speak to human resources about.

– If you do get laid off, you may be entitled to unemployment.

Resignations From A Position

Although some exceptions may be applied, most of the time when you resign from a position you are not entitled to unemployment. Unemployment is specifically used for people that are no longer able to earn an income due to no fault of their own.

If it was your choice to resign, you cannot receive unemployment because you left on your own accord. However, if you resigned because of other reasons; being harassed or pushed out, you could take this to a lawyer as a claim and make a case against the employer or the company.

Fired Because of A Cause

On the other hand, if you were fired because of negligence on your part or any illegal activities, you will waive your right to any benefits after you get fired. This also means that you might not be able to get unemployment either.

If you have been let go from your job and you think you were either let go unfairly or not treated fairly, you might be able to file a claim with a lawyer. Lawyers want to help protect you and your employee rights San Francisco.

A lawyer will be able to go over the case with you and tell you if you have a case or not, and what steps you need to take next!

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Idutko/ George Rudy

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Short Breaks While At Work

One of the most common questions when it comes to employment law in San Francisco, is are breaks paid or not? In short, when an employer offers their employees short breaks – usually ranging from 5 to 20 minutes, the law will require the employer to pay for those breaks. The biggest reason behind this is because they are considered work time and they will account for the wages you make, as well as overtime.

In the state of California, employers are required to give employees rest breaks. The way this usually works is that the employee will get a 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours worked.

When it comes to employment law in San Francisco you might be able to get breaks, however, you cannot take unauthorized breaks or breaks for longer than the employer intends. This means that if you take a break without asking a supervisor or manager – or you take a break longer than 20 minutes, you could be held responsible for breaking the rules.

It should be noted though, that your employer must note that unauthorized break time will, in turn, lead to a punishment or lost wages for the day. If they do not make note of that and you got punished or lost your wages, this would be something you could fight, because you weren’t aware of it.

Meal Breaks While At Work

While a short break of 5 to 20 minutes is paid, meal times are not – especially if they are longer breaks. The employment law in San Francisco also states that employers cannot make an employee work during or through their meal break.

For example, if you are a receptionist at a warehouse and you take your lunch but also are asked to answer phone calls, file paperwork or anything else work related – you would need to be paid for that time.

Most states in the US do not require an employer to allow employees to have meal breaks. Only 24 states in the US do and these breaks require a minimum 30-minute lunch break. California is one of those states, but you must work at least 5 hours in one day to receive it.

Americans With Disabilities Act

You should also be aware that if you have any type of disability while at work, that your breaks or meal time might require more time for accommodations. For example, if you are disabled and in a wheelchair and need to take a bathroom break and bathroom breaks are only 5 minutes, you might need an additional 5 minutes, 10 in total if you are in a wheelchair.

This time should not be counted against you, nor should you be reprimanded, punished or have wages taken away from you because of this.

If you feel that you have been treated unfairly, or discriminated against by your employer according to employment law in San Francisco it would be in your best interest to hire a lawyer. Most lawyers these days offer free consultations so you can talk about the case and see if they would be a good fit for your case.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Mego Studio/ Syda Productions

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Domestic violence is such an hard situation and one needs much time to handle it. As an employee, you may need some medical attention, some time to ensure the safety of your children while at home or just time to settle your domestic disputes with your family and this should not be debated since it is your right to be given time in order to settle such matters.

Where to Report Your Domestic Violence Issues

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The California Labor Laws require employees to meet certain requirements. They include the provision of rest breaks, paying overtime and or tracking hours. However, there are jobs that are exempt from such requirements. People that earn a living from such jobs can be classified as exempt employees. Such people are not subject to either one or more sets of California wage and hour laws.

The Requirements

For a California employee to be classified as an exempt employee, he or she must meet a certain threshold. It is only when they meet this threshold that they qualify to be “exempt” from rest breaks, minimum wage, and overtime. To start with, their job duties should involve making independent decisions and use of discretion.

Another requirement of an exempt employee is that their duties should be executive, administrative or professional. Most people will simply refer to such duties as white-collar duties. The last requirement that meets the threshold of an exempt employee is that his or her salary should be at least twice as much as California’s minimum wage. (Full-time employment wage.)

Job Titles With Exemptions

Other types of jobs with an exemption include private school teachers, outside salespersons, computer professionals, surgeons and physicians, commissioned employees and union employees. A simple way of determining if one is an exempt employee is by answering the question: “is the employee paid on an hourly basis or does he or she have a monthly salary?”

If the employee has a salary, then he or she is an exempt employee. It is important to keep in mind that such salary is always predetermined and will not change depending on the number of hours one has worked.

A fancy job title does not in any way qualify one to be an exempt employee. Employees that devote more than 50% of their working time managing or running a business are exempt employees. Such employees have a responsibility in finance sections, accounting, research, government relations, quality control, database administration, human resources and quality compliance.

Exempt employees have a primary duty of managing an entire business or at least one of its departments. Note that if an exempt employee shows up for work but there is no job for him or her to do, he or she is still entitled to a payment. Another characteristic of an exempt employee is that they can hire and fire other employees at their discretion. They also direct the work of other employees.

Labor Commissioner

When the Labor Commissioner wants to determine if one is an exempt employee, he or she will look into the employee’s duties during workweeks. If they fit the above criteria, then the employee qualifies to as an exempt employee. Exempt employees are rarely supervised directly.

Other employees that can be categorized as exempt employees are learned professionals with advanced knowledge acquired by specialized and prolonged study, licensed professional like architects, lawyers, and engineers. In case an employer finds it hard to determine whether an employee is nonexempt or exempt, they can make use of exempt/nonexempt wizard and nonexempt and exempt forms and checklists.

Photo Credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com

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