Joseph Beachboard

What should we do about gifts from vendors?

12/08/2009

Q. Sometimes our vendors provide modest gifts for our employees. How should we handle these?

Same job, different pay: Is that legal?

12/07/2009

Q. We have two employees who have the same job title, job description and functions. We pay one a flat salary ($120,000). We pay the other a base salary, plus a fixed rate for hours that are billable to the customer ($70,000, plus $20 for every billable hour). Can we do this or should their salary structures be identical?

Can we cap how much vacation can accrue?

12/04/2009

Q. Our vacation policy caps the amount of vacation employees can earn at 250 hours. Employees can’t earn any more until the vacation balance falls below that level. Does this violate California’s law on accruing vacation?

Can we make employees or applicants pay for medical examinations?

12/04/2009

Q. Under what circumstances, if any, can an employer require an applicant or employee to pay for his or her own medical or physical examination?

What can we do? We accidentally overpaid an employee who was out on workers’ comp leave

12/01/2009

Q. While one of our employees was on workers’ compensation leave, she received disability payments. Due to a clerical error, we failed to take her off the payroll during that time, and she continued to receive her regular paychecks while on leave. The employee now refuses to sign an agreement to return the money on a payment schedule we were willing to set up. As a result, we would like to dock her pay for the overpayments. Are we allowed to do so?

Can an employee opt out of mandatory breaks?

12/01/2009

Q. An employee has asked to work through his two daily 10-minute rest periods because he would like to leave work 20 minutes early. Are we permitted to implement this arrangement upon his request?

Are pre-employment tests (driving, welding, etc.) covered under our workers’ comp or the applicant’s personal health insurance?

11/30/2009

Q. Is an applicant’s pre-employment skills test (driving test for truck drivers, welding tests, other testing) covered under the employer’s workers’ compensation? Or, because there has not been an established employer/employee relationship, does it fall to the applicant’s health insurance? — R.H., Nebraska

Employee claiming ‘anxiety’ wants to go part-time. Must we comply?

11/23/2009

Q. "We have employee who is claiming anxiety when she reaches the workplace. She now wants to work part time for three months to see if the anxiety will diminish. If she has anxiety at the workplace, how is two days off a week going to help? Is the company required to give her part-time work and let her set her own days and hours?"

Must we lay off ‘least senior’ employees first?

11/16/2009

Q. We have to lay off some employees soon. Is there any law that requires us to lay off people based on their seniority level?

Are the smallest companies exempt from paying overtime?

11/10/2009

Q. Our CPA told us (a dental office) that "you do not have to pay overtime if you have less than 15 employees." This does not sound correct to me, but our DDS has not been paying overtime based upon his information. We also know other DDS’s who use the same CPA and were given the same information. This is not accurate, right?