Alaska Labor Law Breaks
Regarding rest periods for employees above the age of 18, Alaska falls back on federal law. If an employer decides to offer a break, it must only be compensated if it is longer than 20 minutes. As long as the employee is entirely relieved of all obligations, breaks longer than 30 minutes are considered meal intervals and do not require payment. Minors aged 14 to 17 who put in more than five hours straight are given a 30-minute break.
Alaska Working Environment Laws
Working environments are intended to be safe and without displeasure. Alaskan law help keep hostile work environments at bay as well as sexual harassment occasions. These kinds of environments can arise from employee-to-employee negative targeting. This negative attention can be provided by coworkers or supervisors due to discrimination of color, national ancestry, expectant state, race, gender, religion, age, or disability. Harassment in any form in the working environment is illegal. Federal anti-discrimination laws have been created to punish violators who provide a hostile environment.
Harassment does not need to be based on race. If an employee, male or female, feels he or she is being pressured sexually by a coworker or supervisor, he or she has the right to report the incident for personal and safety reasons. Harassment is often verbal abuse and can be as little as name-calling or the use of slang words. Offensive and inappropriate gestures are also defined as harassment.
Sexual harassment can be hard to prove. As long as one individual feels significantly uncomfortable, sexual harassment can be filed. Sexual discrimination can also fall under this category where an individual does not receive the same benefits, advancements, or salary because he or she is a man or woman.
Employers are also not allowed to discriminate against race, gender, religion, national ancestry, disability, or age when hiring. Employees also cannot legally be fired due to these circumstances.
Alaska Sick Leave
Alaska state law does not require employers to pay employees for sick leave. The federal government also does not require that employers do this. Employers have the right to provide this benefit. If paid sick leave is offered in written form, the employer is then required by law to provide this service.
To eliminate the misuse of provided sick leave, some companies offer a time when an employee is paid for mental health days. Each employee is then given a particular number of paid time off days, different from each company, each year to be used at his or her own discretion. Under these stipulations sick leave is abused less often.
Some union organizations have set up sick leave opportunities for their members. Under these circumstances, employers are required to honor this benefit, despite company policy. Employers also have the right to terminate any presently paid sick leave if decided. In these cases, employers are not legally required to notify employees of this act, but new cases are attempting to make notification mandatory.
Maternity Leave
Alaska does not have its own law for maternity leave and instead uses those federal stipulations. The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act allows pregnant employees the right to take leave once their children are born without the fear of losing employment. Maternity leave is also offered for adoptive parents to spend time bonding with a newly adopted child as well as for new mothers to bond with their newborns. This act allows maternity leave to companies with fifteen or more employees under occupation. Maternity leave can be as much as twelve weeks and will need to be taken consecutively.