Employee Rights

It can be difficult to secure and maintain employment in Missouri with a clean criminal history, but for job seekers or workers with criminal records, it can almost be impossible to find decent employment. More and more often, employers are running their prospective employees through databases of criminal records to determine whether they should be hired. Even already employed workers…

Federal workers in Missouri likely were happy to hear that President Obama recently announced that federal agencies will begin providing their employees with a minimum of six weeks’ paid parental leave. Additionally, the president urged Congress, cities and states to do right by their workers and provide similar leaves to American workers. While the Republican majority in Congress is likely…

Missouri workers who have experienced retaliation in the workplace for their whistleblower activities have legal protections available to them. When an employee reports wrongdoing in the workplace, this can open him or her up to retaliatory acts by employers, supervisors and co-workers. Depending on the nature of the whistleblowing complaint, there may be protection provided to the whistleblowing employee under…

Missouri workers should be aware of their rights and responsibilities when filing claims for Unemployment Compensation or Workers’ Compensation in the state. Below are some questions that are frequently asked by Missouri workers regarding their claims. — How long will it take to review my unemployment benefits case? There is no set time period for the Commission to make their…

Some Missouri workers may worry about losing their health care and retirement benefits after they are separated from their employment or even just had a significant reduction in their hours. But there are federal laws in place to help workers protect their access to benefits after experiencing a job loss. When the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed…

Missouri workers can sometimes find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having their wages garnished by their employers in order to settle a debt. Garnishments can be embarrassing for the worker and involve extra paperwork for the company, which is why employers typically do not like handling wage garnishments. However, they are not permitted to terminate an employee due to…

Black Friday is a day of great sales. It is also a day that poses a great danger to workers. As droves of shoppers show up at stores to score great deals on merchandise, employees are in danger of being trampled by the crowds. This fact hasn’t gone unnoticed by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Under a…

It’s a nightmarish reality with which many Missouri workers have to cope with on a daily basis — having a truly lousy boss. Whether it’s lack of management ability, poor people skills or sociopathic character traits, a bad boss can make going to work an onerous task. It’s unfortunate but having an ineffective or difficult boss is not a violation…

While federal and state laws in Missouri and elsewhere do specify that employees are legally entitled to certain benefits like unemployment and workers’ compensation, no employees are specifically entitled to benefits from their company. Providing employees with benefits like paid holidays, sick pay, vacation time, disability and life or health insurance has always been at the discretion of the employer.…

Missouri employees may be interested to learn of a neighboring state’s Jesuit university’s decision to start providing healthcare benefits to spouses of their gay employees. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, will begin to recognize the marriages of gay couples in states where such marriages are legal, paving the way for their spouses to become eligible for health plan benefits at…