Q&A about Employment Law

Posted May 7, 2020

We serve clients with a wide variety of circumstances that relate to employment law. Some questions tend to appear more frequently than others. If you have further concerns, you should partner with an employment law attorney for assistance.

Common Questions About Tennessee Employment Law

Is my employer allowed to refuse my return to work until he or she sees my medical test results (ex. a flu test)?

Yes.

Tennessee is an employment-at-will state. The state’s employment-at-will doctrine means that someone’s employment is voluntary– for both the employee and the employer.

This affords employees the right to quit their job whenever they want to, and for whatever reason, they see fit. Employers have the same right. In Tennessee, an employer may terminate an employee for whatever reason at any time without consequence. There are rare exceptions (involving discrimination). Some job contracts also protect employees from action taken against them.

What are some examples of overtime pay violations?

Some overpay time violations are more common than others. In our experience, many of our clients face overtime pay violations in the form of:

Paying an employee a salary as a way to avoid paying overtime
Misclassifying an employee as exempt
Paying straight time

Did my employer violate the Family Medical Leave Act?

Nobody can tell you– with certainty– whether your employer violated the law. You’ll need to partner with an attorney and work through the justice system for that.

With that said, a lot of employers tend to violate the Family Medical Leave Act in similar ways. The act is meant to grant employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off due to a specific life event during a 12-month period. Examples of a life event include:

Birth and care of a newborn child
Placement and care of a newly adopted child or a new foster
r child
A serious health condition (or care for a spouse or child with one)

It is illegal for an employer to deny an employee this benefit.