Articles Posted in Employment Law

Under Florida law, employees have a duty of loyalty to their employers. The breadth of the duty of loyalty depends on whether the employee qualifies as a fiduciary under the law. High level employees, such as corporate officers and directors, hold a strict fiduciary duty of loyalty to a corporation. The fiduciary duty of loyalty…

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires employers to pay employees an overtime rate of 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week. The FLSA sets out a number of exemptions to the overtime pay requirement for certain types of employees. Some of the most common…

An employer should take care to understand its legal responsibilities if it has a pregnant employee because several laws prevent an employer from discriminating against that employee. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) prohibit employers from discriminating against pregnant employees. The Americans with…

The Federal Trade Commission’s rule banning most non-compete agreements is now before a federal appellate court. On May 7, 2024, the FTC proposed a rule that would have banned most non-compete agreements. This rule would have substantially impacted many businesses because non-compete agreements are used to prohibit employees from using the company’s information to compete…

Many employers attempt to comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and treat all employees equally based on their protected statuses. Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. Notwithstanding, employers sometimes have to contend with unmeritorious Title VII lawsuits…

Sometimes business deals result in disagreements between business partners about the direction of the business. This includes cases where a business partner acts improperly by trying to usurp control of the business and oust or “freeze-out” other partners. An example of this occurred in recent case filed in Pennsylvania, Harvey v. Tidemark Partners 1 LP.…

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” The broad language of this statute makes employers susceptible to Title VII claims brought by employees. Most Title VII lawsuits are brought by members of a minority group. However, a member of a…

It is important that businesses classifying workers as independent contractors ensure they are properly classified. Whether workers are independent contractors can have important implications for various federal and state statutes. For example, if a worker is an independent contractor, the business does not have to pay them overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Many…

Businesses commonly enter into restrictive covenants with their employees to prohibit them from unfairly competing with the business during and after employment. Restrictive covenants include contracts that restrict competition, such as non-compete agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and confidentiality agreements. When preparing a restrictive covenant, what provisions should be included? Typically, a business should include provisions that…

Parties to a lawsuit are generally responsible for paying their own attorney’s fees regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome. This is known as the “American Rule.” However, exceptions to the American Rule exist when the lawsuit arises from a breach of contract that contains an attorney’s fee provision or the violation of a statute that contains…