When is proving intent and employer knowingly violating an employees rights required in employment law?
Here are questions related to three types of cases to consider:
Does an employee have to prove their employer knowingly violated their rights in a discrimination claim?
Does an employee have to prove the employer had intent in a violation of the FLSA? (Overtime pay, misclassification claims, minimum wage violations, etc.)
Does an employee have to prove the employer knowingly violated their rights under the FMLA? (Family Medical Leave Act)
Discrimination in the workplace does require your representing employment lawyers to prove the employer knowingly discriminated against the employee of a protected class (national origin, race, sex, disability, etc.)
The employer must be shown to have knowingly taken discriminatory action against the employee based upon their membership in said protected class.
This is not the case with Fair Labor Standards Act wage and hour violations and Family Medical Leave Act violations.
These are known as statutory violations, meaning the employer need not knowingly break the law. They often are, knowingly, choosing to ignore the obligations these regulations require, but an effort to prove this isn't required in court.
Instead, it is enough that they didn't follow the requirements of the law, whether mistakenly or knowingly.
For example - an non-exempt employee who isn't paid their entitled time-and-a-half rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in the workweek in violation of the FLSA has suffered a statutory violation of the law regardless of any their employer has.
An additional wage and hour law example - an employee is paid less than the mandated mandated minimum wage rate for hours worked specified under Federal law and Florida law. This is a cut and dry violation of the statute.
Another example - a pregnant employee who takes entitled FMLA leave for childbirth whose employment is terminated as a result has suffered workplace retaliation for taking a legally protected action. You could call it pregnancy discrimination with the job loss being related to her status as being pregnant, but the retaliation is also a direct result of taking medical leave under the FMLA - which violates her right to take job-protected leave for a serious medical condition - of which the birth of a child is included.
Ultimately, the point is, labor law statutory violations the mindset of your employer doesn't matter.
The mood of your employer doesn't matter.
The relationships and HR process doesn't matter.
Your labor lawyer needs only to confirm that you are qualified, eligible and covered by the law, and that your employer isn't exempt for any reason and that you weren't paid or protected as entitled.
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29 ноя 2022
