Employment Laws: Government Workers' Rights Explored

Employment laws are a complex web of federal, state, and local regulations that govern the American workplace, covering a wide range of issues such as wages, hours of work, safety, health, and employee benefits. These laws apply to both public and private sector employees, including government workers. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) administers and enforces most federal employment laws, ensuring fairness and protection for employees across the country. However, it is important to note that state laws often offer more protections than federal laws, and each state has its own set of labor regulations. Understanding these laws can be challenging, especially for small businesses, but the DOL provides a variety of resources to help employers and employees navigate their rights and responsibilities.

Whistleblower protection

In the United States, employment laws are enforced by the Department of Labor (DOL), which administers the rights of about 150 million workers and 10 million workplaces. Whistleblower protection is offered by the DOL's Whistleblower Protection Program, which is enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Whistleblowers are protected from retaliation for reporting issues relating to:

• Consumer product and food safety
• Environmental protection
• Family and medical leave
• Fraud and financial issues
• Lie detector testing
• Military status and obligations
• Transportation services

The OSHA enforces whistleblower protection in most laws, and it is unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee for exercising their rights under the DOL's whistleblower protection laws. Retaliation can include firing or laying off, demoting, denying overtime or promotion, or reducing pay or hours.

The Whistleblower Protection Program also provides information on other workplace issues, such as how to file a retaliation or safety and health complaint.

Workplace safety and health standards

The OSH Act sets out protective workplace safety and health standards, which OSHA enforces through workplace inspections and investigations. OSHA also provides compliance assistance and other cooperative programs.

The OSH Act applies to most private industries, and public sector employers are also covered by OSHA or OSHA-approved state programs. Employers must comply with OSHA's regulations and safety and health standards, and they have a general duty under the OSH Act to provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized, serious hazards.

Some exemptions to the OSH Act include self-employed persons, farms that only employ immediate members of the farmer's family, and those whose working conditions are regulated by other federal agencies and statutes (including most mining, nuclear energy, nuclear weapons manufacture, and transportation industries).

OSHA's mission is to ensure that employees work in a safe and healthful environment. Employees have the right to speak up about hazards without fear of retaliation, and they are entitled to:

• Receive workplace safety and health training in a language they understand
• Work on safe machines
• Refuse to work in a hazardous situation
• Receive required safety equipment
• Be protected from toxic chemicals
• Request an OSHA inspection and speak to the inspector
• Report injuries or illnesses and access their medical records
• Review records of work-related injuries and illnesses
• See the results of tests taken to find workplace hazards

If employees believe their working conditions are unsafe or unhealthy, they may file a confidential complaint with OSHA and request an inspection. It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against a worker who complains to OSHA and uses their legal rights.

Discrimination, harassment, and retaliation

Discrimination

It is illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of their race, colour, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information. Discrimination is prohibited in every aspect of employment, from recruitment and hiring to promotions, pay, and benefits.

Harassment

Harassment is a form of employment discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct based on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, older age (40+), disability, or genetic information. It becomes unlawful when enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or when the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or abusive work environment.

Retaliation

The EEO laws prohibit punishing job applicants or employees for asserting their rights to be free from employment discrimination, including harassment. This "protected activity" includes filing or being a witness in an EEO charge, complaint, investigation, or lawsuit, communicating with a supervisor or manager about employment discrimination, answering questions during an employer investigation of alleged harassment, refusing to follow orders that would result in discrimination, and resisting sexual advances or intervening to protect others.

It is also unlawful for an employer to do anything in response to EEO activity that would discourage someone from resisting or complaining about future discrimination. This includes reprimanding the employee, giving a lower performance evaluation than deserved, transferring the employee to a less desirable position, engaging in verbal or physical abuse, threatening to report the employee to authorities, spreading false rumors, or making the person's work more difficult.

Family and Medical Leave Act

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. It also requires that their group health benefits be maintained during the leave. The FMLA applies to all public agencies, all public and private elementary and secondary schools, and companies with 50 or more employees. These employers must provide an eligible employee with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for any of the following reasons:

• The birth and care of the newborn child of an employee
• Placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care
• To care for an immediate family member (i.e. spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition
• To take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition
• A serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job
• Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on "covered active duty"

Employees are eligible for leave if they have worked for their employer for at least 12 months, at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

FMLA leave may be taken all at once, or, when medically necessary, in separate blocks of time or by reducing the time worked each day or week. Employees may use FMLA leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule for bonding with a newborn or newly placed child only if they and their employer agree.

FMLA is a job-protected leave, meaning that employees who take FMLA leave have the right to return to the same or an equivalent job with the same pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment at the end of their leave. An employer cannot threaten, discriminate against, punish, suspend, or fire an employee because they requested or used FMLA leave.

Minimum wage, overtime, and child labor

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes standards for minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor, which affect employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. The FLSA is administered by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The FLSA sets a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, effective July 24, 2009, and requires overtime pay at a rate of one and a half times the regular rate of pay after 40 hours of work in a workweek. It's important to note that the FLSA does not limit the number of hours an employee may work in a workweek if they are 16 years or older.

The FLSA's child labor provisions are designed to protect the educational opportunities of minors and prohibit their employment in jobs or conditions detrimental to their health and well-being. These provisions include restrictions on the hours of work for minors under 16 and lists of hazardous occupations for both farm and non-farm jobs deemed too dangerous for minors.

In non-farm work, the permissible jobs and hours of work vary by age. Youths aged 18 and older can perform any job, hazardous or not, for an unlimited number of hours. Minors aged 16 and 17 may engage in non-hazardous jobs without restrictions on working hours, while minors aged 14 and 15 may work outside of school hours in various non-manufacturing and non-mining jobs under certain conditions: no more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day, or 40 hours in a non-school week. Additionally, their work hours must fall between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., with an extension to 9 p.m. during the summer months.

In farm work, the rules are slightly different. Minors aged 16 and older can take on any job without restrictions, while those aged 14 and 15 may perform non-hazardous farm work outside of school hours. Minors aged 12 and 13 are permitted to work outside of school hours in non-hazardous jobs, either with parental consent or on the same farm as their parents. Importantly, minors of any age may be employed by their parents in any occupation on a farm owned or operated by those parents.

The FLSA also requires employers to keep records on wages, hours worked, and other relevant information for employees subject to minimum wage and overtime provisions.

Frequently asked questions