Purpose
Take a real HR scenario and surface every employment law issue it implicates — discrimination, wage/hour, leave, classification, retaliation, and more — with jurisdiction-specific flags and risk ratings, so HR and legal can act before a problem becomes a claim. Produces a defensible issue-spotting memo, not legal advice.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Review an employee complaint or internal grievance for legal exposure
- Evaluate a proposed termination, layoff, or disciplinary action before executing
- Assess a leave request, accommodation, or return-to-work situation
- Spot risks in a pay, overtime, or worker-classification question
- Determine whether an action could be seen as retaliation after protected activity
- Pressure-test an HR decision before it goes to leadership or outside counsel
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Scenario facts: A narrative of what happened — who, what, when, and in what sequence
- Jurisdiction: Country, state/province, and city if relevant (employment law varies heavily by locale)
- Employee details: Role, exempt/non-exempt status, tenure, employment type (W-2, contractor, part-time)
- Employer size: Approximate headcount (triggers different statutory thresholds — e.g., Title VII, FMLA, ADA)
- Protected-status factors: Any known age, race, sex, disability, religion, pregnancy, national origin, or similar characteristics relevant to the facts
- Recent protected activity: Any complaints, leave, reports, or claims the employee raised before the action in question
- The proposed or completed action: What the employer did or plans to do
If jurisdiction is missing, default to U.S. federal law and explicitly flag that state/local law must be checked. If employer size is unknown, note which statutory thresholds hinge on it.
Instructions
Step 1: Restate the Operative Facts
Summarize the scenario in a neutral, chronological fact pattern (4–8 bullet points). Separate established facts from assumptions. Flag any critical fact gaps that materially change the analysis (e.g., "unclear whether employee complained before or after the demotion").
Step 2: Run the Issue-Spotting Checklist
Screen the fact pattern against each employment law category. For each, mark Implicated / Possible / Not Raised and give one sentence of reasoning tied to the facts.
- Discrimination: Adverse action linked to a protected class; disparate treatment or disparate impact
- Harassment: Hostile work environment, quid pro quo, severity/pervasiveness, employer notice
- Retaliation: Adverse action following protected activity; temporal proximity; causal link
- Wage & Hour: Overtime, minimum wage, misclassification (exempt vs. non-exempt), meal/rest breaks, off-the-clock work, final pay timing
- Worker Classification: Employee vs. independent contractor (ABC test / economic-realities test)
- Leave & Accommodation: FMLA/state leave eligibility, ADA reasonable accommodation, interactive process, pregnancy accommodation, sick leave
- Termination / Discipline: At-will limits, wrongful termination, WARN Act (mass layoff), progressive-discipline consistency, documentation gaps
- Wage Transparency / Pay Equity: Equal pay obligations, pay-range posting requirements
- Privacy & Off-Duty Conduct: Surveillance, medical info, lawful off-duty activity protections
- Contract & Restrictive Covenants: Non-compete enforceability, severance, arbitration clauses
Step 3: Analyze Each Implicated Issue
For every issue marked Implicated or Possible, produce a short analysis block:
- The rule: The governing standard or framework (name the doctrine — e.g., McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting, FLSA duties test)
- Application to facts: How the specific facts do or don't satisfy each element
- What strengthens vs. weakens exposure: The facts helping and hurting the employer's position
- Risk rating: High / Medium / Low, with a one-line justification
Step 4: Flag Jurisdiction-Specific Considerations
Identify where local law diverges from the federal baseline and matters here:
- Lower statutory coverage thresholds (many state laws cover employers below Title VII/FMLA minimums)
- Additional protected classes (sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, arrest/conviction, etc.)
- State-specific wage rules (daily overtime, break penalties, final-pay deadlines)
- Local leave/sick-time ordinances
- Non-compete bans or limits Where the user's jurisdiction can't be verified, state exactly what must be confirmed with local counsel.
Step 5: Recommend Next Steps
Provide a prioritized action list (5–8 items): documentation to gather, questions to answer, process steps to run (e.g., interactive process, investigation), and a clear signal for when to escalate to outside counsel. Rank by urgency.
Output Format
- Structure: Memo format with clear headers per section; analysis blocks per issue; a summary risk table
- Length: 800–1,300 words
- Format: Structured document with a risk-rating table (Issue | Status | Risk | Note) plus prose analysis blocks and a ranked next-steps list
- Sections: Operative Facts → Issue-Spotting Checklist (table) → Issue Analysis → Jurisdiction-Specific Flags → Recommended Next Steps → Disclaimer
- Tone: Practical in-house counsel — precise, risk-calibrated, plain-language, no alarmism and no false comfort
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Every category in the issue-spotting checklist is addressed with a status and a fact-based reason
- [ ] Each implicated issue names the governing doctrine or legal standard — not just "this could be discrimination"
- [ ] Every implicated issue has a High/Medium/Low risk rating with justification
- [ ] Jurisdiction-specific section is present and flags anything that must be confirmed with local counsel
- [ ] Retaliation is analyzed whenever the facts include prior protected activity plus an adverse action
- [ ] The memo includes a non-legal-advice disclaimer and a clear escalation trigger
Notes
- This is an issue-spotting and risk-triage tool, not legal advice. Always include a disclaimer that a licensed attorney in the relevant jurisdiction should review before action.
- Retaliation is the most frequently missed and most frequently won claim — check it any time an employee raised a complaint, took leave, or made a report before the action in question.
- Temporal proximity matters: an adverse action within weeks of protected activity is a red flag even when the employer has legitimate reasons.
- When facts are ambiguous, spot the issue and name the missing fact rather than assuming the employer-favorable reading — the goal is to surface exposure, not minimize it.
How to use this skill
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