Would you fire an employee for complaining about pay or the working conditions in a group chat? Careful, that one decision could land your business in hot water!
Employment law is full of terms that sound like trivia but carry real consequences for employers. In this two-part edition of Is It Real? we break down the jargon behind EEOC complaints, worker misclassification, lie detector tests, and why your delivery driver’s fender bender can become your problem. Watch both parts, test yourself, and use the cheat sheet below to stay a step ahead. When you need to know what’s real, Team Way Law is here to help!
Answer Key
- Disparate Treatment: Treating an employee or applicant differently because of a protected trait like race, sex, age, or religion
- Consequential Damages: Losses that come indirectly from an injury rather than directly from it
- Concerted Activity: Employees banding together, even in a group chat, to discuss pay or working conditions. It’s protected by federal labor law, union or not.
- Republication: Repeating someone else’s defamatory statement, which can make you just as liable as the person who said it first
- Misclassification: Treating a worker as an independent contractor (or overtime-exempt) when the law says they’re an employee, which can bring back taxes, back pay, and penalties
- Polygraph Protection Act: A federal law barring most private employers from requiring, or even asking, employees to take a lie detector test
- Respondeat Superior: Latin for “let the master answer.” Employers can be liable for what employees do on the job.