In business, you will likely have employees and there are many laws protecting their rights. As an

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In business, you will likely have employees and there are many laws protecting their rights. As an employer, you must know those rights.

Pam works for BC Heating and Cooling in the sales department. BC is a fairly new company and has 43 employees. The business has been really profitable in the first year and many weeks Pam works through at least a portion of her lunch hour, which puts her over a 40-hour work week. But Pam doesn't mind because it is a fun and rewarding job that she really enjoys. Besides, she lives 45 minutes away from home and doesn't want to leave the office for lunch because of the expense. The employees are given a one-hour lunch break, and she just doesn't need that amount of time to eat a sandwich and some chips. Pam makes $8.00 per hour and her gross paycheck has always been $320 per week, except for the one week that she missed four hours due to a doctor's appointment for her son. That gross paycheck was $288.

After working for BC Heating and Cooling for four months, Pam's son fell on the school playground and broke his hip. Because he was placed in a partial body cast, Pam had to take off work for four weeks to care for him. Her leave was unpaid.

While on leave, the company realized that it needed more help, so they hired 15 more employees. Pam returned to her job and resumed work as usual.

One day, during lunch, when Pam was working through her lunch hour, Bob (one of the partners of BC) came to talk with Pam and told her that he had a dinner meeting with some potential clients the next evening and wanted to know if Pam would accompany him to help keep the meeting personal and to help him with his sales pitch. Pam was reluctant to go, but Bob told her that he and Carl (the other partner of BC) had recently been discussing potential raises for employees who had been there for 6 months. In just one more month, Pam would be eligible for a raise. He thought that going to this dinner would help him convince Carl that Pam was a real team player and that he could get her a raise. Pam agreed to go.

At the dinner, the drinks were free-flowing. Bob asked Pam numerous times if she would like a glass of wine or another cocktail but she quietly declined, whispering to him that she was a recovering alcoholic who had been sober for 7 years. Bob then began whispering in her ear and laughing. He had obviously had quite a bit to drink and he made Pam uncomfortable. But, she was concerned about the potential sale so she tried to continue to smile and interact with the potential clients. As they were leaving the restaurant, Bob offered to share a cab with Pam, but she declined and hailed one herself.

The next day she went to Bob and Carl and told them that her son was going to need surgery on his hip and it was going to be necessary for her to be absent from work for another 4 weeks. Bob was very upset that she wanted to take off, but he and Carl agreed that she could, with no pay.

After four weeks, Pam returned to work and realized it was time for her evaluation. Bob and Carl told her they had been monitoring her e-mail and saw correspondence between Pam and her husband, whereby it was stated that Pam's husband would actually be on vacation during the four weeks that their son was home following his surgery. The e-mails exchanged between the two discussed the fun they would have as a family watching movies and relaxing during that period of time. Bob asked, under his breath, if she and her husband really had a drunk fest on their time off partying.

Pam is fired for violating the portion of the employee handbook, which Pam signed, stating that the company is providing e-mail to its employees for company use only and for the reason that her need for leave was not medically founded.

Pam files a wrongful discharge claim alleging that she was fired because she was discriminated against as a recovering alcoholic. She alleges that BC Heating and Cooling failed to give her paid leave for the 8 weeks she was off work and that they failed to pay her proper overtime pay for the days that she worked over lunch, putting her over 40 hours per week. She also filed a civil suit against Bob and against BC Heating and Cooling for sexual harassment, alleging that Bob used sexual advances against her as a determining factor in whether she received a raise, and since she thwarted his advances, that was a determining factor in BC's decision to fire her.

Read Chapter 18 of the textbook by Miller & Jentz.
Write a 1-page response explaining whether Bob and Carl upheld all of the legal rights of their employee, Pam, and whether she will be successful in any of her claims.

Support your work with scholarly academic resources, textbooks, or other sources provided. Use of APA format is required.