As 2015 winds down, it's time to test your employment and labor law knowledge with Nexsen Pruet's fifth annual exam. From COBRA to the ADEA to right to work law, it's your time to show off your knowledge of employment law!

We will send out answers to the exam on Friday, December 18, 2015. Be sure to email your responses to mlewis@nexsenpruet.com by Friday, December 11, 2015. If you score 100 percent, you will be entered to win an awesome prize. Winners will be announced when the answer key is released on December 18th.

The exam is open book, open notes. Good luck!

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Under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA), qualified beneficiaries who lose coverage under a group health plan as the result of a "qualifying event" are entitled to elect continuation coverage. Which of the following events represents a qualifying event that would cause a covered employee to lose health coverage and qualify for COBRA continuation coverage:

1. Voluntary or involuntary termination of employment for any reason other than gross misconduct
2. Transfer of the employee to a job site in a different state
3. Reduction in the number of hours of employment
4. Both A and C
5. Both A and B

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an employer with no FLSA-related policies who improperly deducts pay from an exempt employee's salary can preserve the overtime exemption if the employer corrects the improper deduction and makes good-faith effort to not make improper deductions in the future.

a) True

b) False

An employee who qualifies for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave takes 10 weeks of leave in January following placement of a child for adoption by the employee and her husband. While the employee is out onFMLA leave, she learns she is pregnant and is due in August. If the employer uses a "rolling leave year" to determine the applicable 12-monthFMLA, how muchFMLA leave can the employee take in August when her baby is born?

a) None, because the FMLA only allows an employee to take job-protected leave once per FMLA year related to the birth or placement of a child.

b) 12 months, because the FMLA contains an exception for this situation.

c) 12 months, because the rolling 12-month period calculation method measures forward from when the employee's last FMLA leave ended.

d) None of these

Each of the primary federal anti-discrimination laws - including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination of Employment Act, and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act - covers employers with 15 or more employees.

a) True

b) False

South Carolina and North Carolina are "right to work" states. This means that an employer may terminate a non-contractual employee at any time for any reason and without notice as long as the reason for termination does not violate the law.

a) True

b) False