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Compensation & Benefits

Boss triggers lawsuits? Review all decisions

04/14/2009

If you have a manager or supervisor whose decisions have caused lawsuits that you have lost, be on your toes the next time that manager has to make an employment decision. Make absolutely sure that you can pin the decision on some objective reason.

Discovered performance problems while worker was on FMLA leave? You can fire him

04/14/2009

What if you discover during an employee’s FMLA leave that the employee wasn’t as stellar as you always believed? What if you couldn’t have known that until you hired a temporary replacement. Must you bring the employee back? No, according to a recent 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision.

What is the employee’s responsibility to notify us she needs FMLA leave?

04/14/2009

Q. We received a note from an employee’s physician simply stating that she was ill. On one occasion, she had to go to the emergency room from work, and she subsequently called in sick one day about a month or two later. Is this sufficient notice under the FMLA to require us to regard this as a request for extended FMLA leave?

When making exempt/nonexempt call, actual duties trump résumé or job description

04/14/2009

Don’t rely on old job descriptions or résumés to prove you have properly classified an employee as exempt from overtime. Instead, make sure employees’ job descriptions actually reflect the day-to-day work they’re performing. Little else counts.

Discrimination difference: Unfair not always illegal

04/14/2009

We’d all like to think we run a fair workplace. But people are imperfect, and supervisors sometimes aren’t fair. It’s only when that unfairness harms members of a protected class that the practice is illegal.

United Airlines to pay $850,000 settlement for disability bias

04/14/2009

Chicago-based United Airlines agreed to settle a disability discrimination suit stemming from practices at San Francisco International Airport. The case involved a United policy restricting overtime for workers who had been placed in light-duty assignments.

Solid salary plan beats equal pay lawsuits

04/14/2009

If you haven’t looked carefully at how you determine compensation, here is another reason to do so soon. Employers that can show a court they set salaries based on logical, fair and unbiased factors are likely to win Equal Pay Act lawsuits. That’s because the EPA outlaws sex discrimination in pay, but allows employers to use factors other than sex to set pay rates.

Family Dollar owes big bucks to misclassified managers

04/14/2009

Family Dollar Stores recently got a lesson in the nuances of overtime labor law. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the $35.6 million settlement of an FLSA class action suit brought by store managers at the discount chain.

Check overtime, other pay practices: DOL cracking down after scathing report

04/14/2009

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is preparing to crack down on employers who stiff workers out of overtime pay after a government uncovered a pattern of ignoring alleged employer wrongdoing. As enforcement gears up, we’ve got resources you can use to make sure you’re in compliance.

Minnesota’s 8.8% unemployment rate outpaces national average

04/09/2009

The recession is taking a heavy toll on Minnesota jobs, and the state’s 8.8% unemployment rate is higher than the national average. Duluth and St. Cloud had the highest unemployment rate in the state—9.8%. The nationwide unemployment rate was 8.1%.