REVIEW EMAILS
You work for a firm that provides human resources compliance for smaller firms. Your supervisor has asked you to review the 4 emails below. Alert her to any legal issues that you might see. Need the federal and state laws referenced (actual codes).
Email One
To: Paula Partner, General Counsel
From: Inez Intake Specialist
CC: You
Re: Potential Client Jane Jones
Today I spoke with Jane Jones (she/her). Ms. Jones works as a customer service representative at a company that sells all-terrain vehicles and small lawnmowers. The company, Outdoor Motors, Ltd., is small but has had a great year. The company operates a sales and service department in SouLouisiana that has made $490,000 in annual gross sales. Next door to the showroom, Outdoor Motors, Ltd. also operates a manufacturing facility that produces its own brand of all-terrain vehicles. This subsidiary has made $1.5 million in annual gross sales.
Ms. Jones works typically Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. As part of her job, she works with clients to obtain estimates for potential repairs. She also advises clients on potential repairs. Her salary is $33,000 a year. Another part of her job entails visiting small farmers to discuss the company’s product and make them aware of financing opportunities. Ms. Jones also attends local events like the parish farm fairs in a booth to educate consumers about the company’s products and financing. Her objective is not to make sales but to set up appointments. On this work, she earns a small commission paid annually at the close of the fiscal year.
Ms. Jones believes that she has been denied overtime in violation of the law. When she mentions this to the human resources manager, the manager becomes angry and tells, “You are lucky to have a position in this economy. You’re lucky we even pay you a commission.”
Email Two
To: Paula Partner, General Counsel
From: Inez Intake Specialist
CC: You
Re: Addison Lee
Today I spoke with Addison Lee (she/her) Ms. Lee is the owner and operator of a chain of pizza restaurants in SouLouisiana that sell deep dish pizza. The chain is called PIE-Zanno’s. PIE-Zanno’s delivers pizzas through an app called iPie that is proprietary. To externalize some of the costs of hiring delivery drivers, iPie connects drivers seeking to do delivery with customers seeking to have pizza delivered. iPie has a simple process for drivers to sign up to do deliveries. Drivers own their cars and provide insurance. They sign up to drive for the app and go through a simple screening process. First, PIE-Zanno’s runs a background check for traffic violations. Then, drivers must produce a scan of their driver’s licenses and insurance documents. Finally, they upload information about their car. PIE-Zannos requires drivers to be “on-call” for deliveries at least twice a week to remain active on the app. At the end of the month, drivers are evaluated and for each on-call day, they are required to deliver a certain number of pizzas. Drivers must also place two magnetic display signs on their car so that the customers will know they are PIE-Zannos drivers when they pull up. During the pandemic, the drivers were also required to follow a contactless delivery process and wear a mask when making deliveries.
PIE-Zanno’s has had some challenges with the delivery drivers. One of these challenges concerns the situation with Julian Johnson. Julian has been working with iPie since the company started using the app about three years ago. iPie is Julian’s only job and he makes many deliveries for the company. He is well-known by the other employees and well-liked. It has emerged that Julian Johnson used the customer information he obtained at PIE-Zannos to “case” the apartments of young women. He then stalked the young woman. In one situation, Julian broke into a young woman’s apartment and sexually assaulted her. Although Ms. Lee did not know this, it has emerged that Julian was previously convicted of aggravated sexual assault.
Further, the PIE-Zanno’s drivers are already creating difficulty in California as well. This situation concerns James Obo, who is one of their most reliable and devoted iPie drivers. When coming to pick up a pizza, James was waiting in the kitchen when there was a serious accident because one of the kitchen staff failed to clean up spilled water. Mr. Obo was badly burned and had to be hospitalized. During this process, it came out that Mr. Obo is undocumented as his social security number was returned twice from the Social Security Administration as not found. The Department of Labor is investigating.
Finally, Ms. Lee is part of a long tradition of small business owners and immigrant families where everyone lends a hand. Her children, aged 12 and 13, would like to help at the pizza place taking orders and running the cash register and helping to fill the online orders.
Email Three
To: Paula Partner, General Counsel
From: Inez Intake Specialist
CC: You
Re: Brynn Goldstein
Today I spoke with Brynn Goldstein (they/them). Mx. Goldstein works in California for a tech company that has been designing a productivity app that fuses the cute personification of a Tamagotchi or virtual pet with the helpful focus provided by the Pomodoro technique. They started working there in December of 2018. This app is entitled Mater-D and it is designed to lead you to productivity. Mater-D, and a cast of lovely customizable characters, is being beta tested. The company is still small. It has 45 employees in Oakland, California and another 20 in Eugene, Oregon.
Mx. Goldstein is a sales development specialist. Their job involves promoting the application to businesses, schools, and universities. They also have significant programming and troubleshooting skills and they use the feedback from these promotional clients to develop fixes for bugs and advise on improvements for the application.
As part of Mx. Goldstein’s compensation, they have a commission bonus agreement. Bonuses are paid on December 31 of every year. After two years, employees received stock as part of their compensation. The commission bonus agreement also contains an arbitration clause dictating that all disputes about compensation are subject to arbitration. The commission bonus agreement mentions nothing about continued employment, severance, or just cause.
When Mx. Goldstein started, they were single and fancy-free. When the manager interviewing them mentioned the company’s generous maternity leave policy and the opportunity to freeze embryos, Mx. Goldstein laughs and voluntarily told their supervisor that they were not especially interested in having children – and certainly not interested in giving birth. Their supervisor told them that if hired at Mater-D, it was a place they could grow.
During the past two years, Mx. Goldstein fell in love with a co-worker at Mater-D and entered a very wanted consensual relationship. Mx. Goldstein and their partner have decided to become pregnant and give birth using a frozen embryo that their partner made using the company’s plan. When Mx. Goldstein told this to their supervisor, who interviewed them for the job, the supervisor reacted poorly. She said she felt betrayed. Mx. Goldstein went ahead and became pregnant anyway.
In October of last year, Mx. Goldstein developed an adversarial relationship with their supervisor. As California began to re-open and the Covid-19 crisis began to abate, Mx. Goldstein was expected to come into the office frequently and check-in. During this time, Mx. Goldstein developed severe morning sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum). Hyperemesis gravidarum is an extremely persistent form of morning sickness that often involves constant nausea, vomiting [3x or more daily], weight loss, constipation, low blood pressure, loss of appetite, and other symptoms. Although the company has a generous telecommuting policy, Mx. Goldstein’s morning sickness meant that sometimes they were not available for early meetings with East Coast Clients. This created tension. Due to pregnancy, Mx. Goldstein was also very tired during the first trimester and was unable to keep up the break-neck late-night pace they previously kept. Mx. Goldstein requested two weeks of FMLA leave in November of 2020. Mx. Goldstein was told that it was a bad time to take FMLA leave and that they should manage the morning sickness by telecommuting.
After Thanksgiving of 2020, Mx. Goldstein was fired. This meant that they would receive neither the bonus they earned nor the stock.
Mx. Goldstein, however, had a backup plan. They had been interviewing and secured an offer of employment at Smoolie, a technology company occupying a different niche than their current employer. They passed up numerous opportunities to interview and even relocated from
California, where their previous employer is, to Smoolie in Seattle. But Smoolie, due to pressure from its investors, went through a reorganization to become a more streamlined firm in advance of the IPO. With that reorganization, Mx. Goldstein lost their position before they even worked a day.
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Email Four
To: Paula Partner, General Counsel
From: Inez Intake Specialist
CC: You
Re: Colin Stattler
Today I spoke with Colin Stattler (he/him). Dr. Stattler works as a professor of practice at Big Sky State University in Montana. Dr. Stattler has no contract at Big-Sky, but he has worked there for six years. Recently, Dr. Stattler has been involved in attempts to unionize his workplace and organize professors of practice and adjuncts. At Big Sky State University, most professors of the practice are retained every semester unless there is some issue related to performance or ethics. When Dr. Stattler was hired, the chair of his department said, “We don’t have contracts here or fancy unions, but I don’t think you need them. Once you are hired here, we almost never get rid of you unless there are serious performance issues. If you do your job and stay out of trouble, you should be fine.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Stattler lost childcare for his toddler. He found it increasingly difficult to teach. However, Dr. Stattler rallied and won a university-wide teaching award for his innovative online class. During the pandemic, when the university was closed, many faculty members received permission to move their office computers from the university to their homes. Many faculty members, perhaps overwhelmed by the circumstances, moved their computers without permission. Dr. Stattler was one of them. Because many computers were removed, the university started an investigation, accusing many faculty members of stealing equipment. During the investigation, Dr. Stattler admitted to removing the computer from the university. He offered to return it and cited the difficult circumstances of the pandemic with his administrative failure. Although other faculty members were given a warning and retained with no penalty, Dr. Stattler was terminated. There was no reason given for his termination.
