Posts tagged Medical and Sick Leave
COVID-19 and Health-Related Absences: Know Your Rights Under Massachusetts Law

Massachusetts employees may be entitled to paid or unpaid medical leave or sick leave due to COVID-19 related quarantine, suspected illness or diagnosed illness, caring for a sick family member, or caring for a child at home due to COVID-19 related closures.

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Evidence Suggests Flo Partied While on Medical Leave -- Can We Fire Her?

Our Junior Associate, Flo, was caught possibly abusing medical leave. We walk you through Steffans Legal’s subsequent workplace investigation and decision making as to whether or not we could discipline or terminate her employment for the alleged abuse of medical leave.

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Your Employee Has Requested an Accommodation. Now What?

Yesterday, Flo came to our management team requesting a workplace accommodation for a recently diagnosed illness she is suffering from. Let’s walk through whether she is covered under any employment laws and if so what we should consider when deciding whether we can accommodate her request.

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First Circuit Sides with Employer in Reasonable Accommodation Case

The First Circuit, in the case of Miceli v. JetBlue Airways Corp. et al. recently provided helpful guidance to employers and employees when it comes to one of the most difficult areas of employment law: leaves of absence resulting from mental impairments.

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Grand Bargain: Why is it Grand and What does it Mean?

By now, most of you have probably read about the bill signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker, colloquially referred to as the Grand Bargain. By any measure, this bill is surely “grand” in that it dramatically changes three important areas of employment law.

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Can Massachusetts Employers Require Flu Shots or Face Masks?

The workplace can be a breeding ground for flu-related illnesses. A 2018 survey estimated the cost to employers of the 2017-2018 flu season to be around $9.42 billion. Employees who come to work sick, get others sick. Sick employees are less productive employees. To address this, can an employer require employees to get flu shots? Not surprisingly, the answer is not simple.

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The Supreme Judicial Court Gives Employers A Gift In The Ongoing Independent Contractor Saga

Under Massachusetts law, it’s quite difficult to properly treat an individual as an independent contractor.  Thankfully (if you are an employer) the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has carved a pro-employer exception into the law that makes it much easier to treat someone as an independent contractor, at least for workers’ compensation purposes.

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Steffans Legal Achieves Settlement Equal to Two Years of His Client's Earnings in Complex Disability Discrimination Case

The employee in this matter suffered from a rare neurological condition that caused her to suffer from periodic and unpredictable episodes that, occassionally, caused her to be late to work.  She always notified her manager when she was going to be late and provided as much notice as possible.

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