Employment Law Terms

Employment Law Terms (V-Z)

This is the ninth (and final!) post in a series discussing some basic employment law terms. I hope this will help employers better understand the words that frequently come up in employment law. If there’s a term you’re wondering about that isn’t discussed here, let me know.

Here are links to the previous installments if you missed them:

V

“Verbal warning”:  Form of discipline where an employee is formally told that their actions were inappropriate. Despite the name, verbal warnings are often also documented in the employee’s personnel file.

“Vesting”:  When an employee earns a benefit, usually related to retirement or stock ownership. Vesting typically depends on length of service, potentially among other factors.

“Vicarious liability”:  Where the employer is held legally responsible for acts or omissions of its employees. For example, employers may be held liable for workplace harassment of an employee by co-workers if the employer knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take appropriate action.

W

“Wage”:  The amount of money that an employee earns for working a specific period of time. “Wage” is often used to refer to compensation of employees based on hours or days worked, whereas “salary” is more commonly used to describe fixed pay for a week or longer period.

“Wage and hour laws”:  Collective term for laws that dictate minimum standards and requirements related to how much employees have to be paid based on how much they work. Primarily includes state and federal minimum wage and overtime laws, including child labor laws, along with related recordkeeping requirements.

“WARN Act”:  Either the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or a similar state law. WARN Acts require covered employers to given advance written notice to employees, their union representatives (if applicable), and certain government officials before beginning employment actions that will result in loss of employment for groups of employees of at least certain numbers (as determined by the applicable law).

“WARN notice”:  Term for the written notice given to employees, unions, and government officials in advance of plant closings or mass layoffs, or as otherwise required by a WARN Act.

“Weingarten rights”:  Rights of unionized employees to request to have a union representative present for interviews that could result in discipline and of unions to assist employees in those interviews. Weingarten was a National Labor Relations Board case, and its holding only directly applies to private-sector employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRB has gone back and forth on whether non-union employees have similar rights to have a co-worker present. The principle also varies somewhat under state laws for employees not covered by the NLRA.

“Whistleblower”:  An employee who reports his/her employer’s alleged illegal actions to relevant authorities. Whistleblowers may receive protection under various state or federal laws.

“Workers’ compensation”:  Benefits (typically covering wage replacement and medical costs) available under state laws to employees who are injured through workplace accidents. Workers’ compensation usually creates an exclusive remedy as against the employer in lieu of personal injury lawsuits by employees.

“Written warning”:  Form of discipline where an employee is formally advised in writing that their actions were inappropriate.  The employee is usually requested to sign the warning acknowledging their receipt and given the opportunity to add their comments to the document.

“Wrongful termination”:  Claim by employee that the employer did not have a proper basis to end his/her employment. Could be based either on a statutory protection (e.g., discrimination) or a contractual just cause requirement.

Y

“Years of service”:  Length of time that an employee has worked for the employer. Can be a determining factor for certain benefits, such as paid vacation time or severance pay.

Z

“Zipper clause”:  A contractual provision in some collective bargaining agreement that precludes renegotiation of any terms of the agreement during its term.

That’s the End of the Employment Law Terms Blog Series, but There’s More!

We’ve made it through the alphabet, so that’s the end of this series of posts on employment law terms. Thanks to all of you who have follwed along all the way from “ADA” to “Zipper clause.” If you didn’t, you can scroll back to the top and click on the earlier installments.

I plan to compile all of terms from this series of posts into one document for convenient reference. If you want to be notified when that is available, please email me.

In the meantime, please sign up for my email newsletter so that you will get additional valuable content direct to your inbox.