HR Specialist: Pennslyvania Employment Law

Jurors in Pennsylvania are notoriously generous to fired employees. And that’s just the beginning. Aggressive attorneys don’t stop with federal laws like FMLA, ADA and FLSA: they use state and local living-wage statutes, rural codes, plus discrimination and other laws to sue employers for sky’s-the-limit damages. This Pennsylvania-specific newsletter arrives monthly to help sue-proof every aspect of HR. Written in plain English, it’s your insurance policy for staying in step with current interpretations of state and local laws – and staying out of court. Learn more about HR Specialist: Pennsylvania Employment Law and the free report you’ll get when you subscribe...
 .

Lawyers are always looking for new and different reasons to sue employers on behalf of employees and applicants. That’s bad news for employers, because additional charges mean greater legal costs, more lost time and potentially higher jury awards.

Fortunately, courts are growing impatient with this practice, as the following case shows.

Recent case: Former Sears employee Gerard Atchinson sued, claiming he was fired for taking FMLA leave.

His attorneys also said the discharge broke Pennsylvania state law because it violated public policy. Pennsylvania outlaws firing at-will employees if doing so would violate public policy, and Atchinson argued that violating the FMLA violates public policy.

The court dismissed the additional claim, concluding that the FMLA has its own remedies built in. Employees must use those. (Atchinson v. Sears, No. 08-3257, ED PA, 2009)