Employment Law

Both state and Federal law says that individuals cannot be discriminated against at work because of protected characteristics. Examples of protected characteristics include religion, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity.  One protected characteristic that is often...

Workers have protection from discrimination based on certain protected characteristics. Racial discrimination and sex discrimination receive a lot of media attention, and rightly so. However, these more dramatic forms of discrimination often overshadow other, equally...

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows workers across the United States, including in Hawaii, to take unpaid leave from work. Even if their company does not offer paid time off or medical leave, workers can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off in specific...

Not everyone can do the same work in the same circumstances. Performing the same job responsibilities can present challenges for people in different situations. Those with disabling medical conditions may be theoretically capable of performing a job but may require...

Some states have more robust employment laws than others, but many of the laws in Hawaii align with federal rules. For example, the overtime rule in Hawaii applies when an hourly or non-exempt salary worker puts in more than 40 hours in a particular workweek. Hourly...

Companies have the legal right to terminate their workers for a broad range of reasons. Although the civil courts in Hawaii will expect employers to uphold contractual obligations to their workers, such as promised severance pay, a worker upset about an unexpected job...

People across Hawaii spend much of their time in the workplace. In almost any industry or sector, there will be times when workloads are high and deadlines are tight, leading to a certain level of stress. Nonetheless, there are occasions where tensions and hostility...

Discrimination in the workplace is not something employees have to tolerate. They have legal protections when that discrimination focuses on their gender, age, race, and many other such categories. They know it, and employers know it.  However, that doesn’t mean...

You think you’re doing everything that is being asked of you at work, and you have no fear of losing your job. Even so, your boss approaches you one Friday and says that you’re being terminated, so you shouldn’t bother coming in on Monday. It’s time to start looking...

In some regards, workplace discrimination and harassment have changed over the years. In the past, some overt actions -- such as refusing to hire women or African American workers -- were allowed and common. Today, these are clear violations of workers’ rights and...