• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Wages & Hours

N.C. workers’ compensation may cover injury-related depression

08/22/2008

Employees who are hurt on the job sometimes become depressed because they can’t do the things they previously could. That depression may then complicate their recovery or even prevent them from getting better. The practical result is that employers and their workers’ compensation carriers will have to pay lost wages longer …

Energy crunch: Wayne County tries four-Day workweek

08/22/2008
Roughly half of Wayne County’s 1,032 workers are switching to a four-day workweek to cut commuting costs and energy bills and to boost employee morale. County officials hope the move will cut utility costs by $300,000 per year …

Employ teens? Child-Labor fines, enforcement on the rise

08/21/2008
Buried in the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) that President Bush signed this year was a little-noticed provision that substantially increased the potential fines against employers that violate federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) child-labor laws. If employees under age 18 are killed or seriously hurt due to an FLSA child-labor violation, employers can now face a $50,000 fine for each violation

GAO pokes a stick at Wage & Hour auditors, waking them up for more aggressive OT probes

08/21/2008

A recent GAO report sharply criticized the Bush administration for mishandling overtime, back-pay and final-paycheck complaints filed by U.S. employees. The report said U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division auditors often failed to thoroughly investigate claims …

DOL: Employees must be paid for time worked, even if they violate mandatory meal-Break policy

08/21/2008
Work time is paid time. Period. You still must pay employees even if they work through a company-mandated meal break without a supervisor’s approval, according to a new U.S. Department of Labor opinion letter released July 29 …

Dealing with negative leave balances

08/21/2008
Q. I know I must pay exempt employees their full salaries even if they have no accrued benefits in their leave plans and their accounts have negative balances. But can I keep negative balance tallies and then subtract the negative balances as the employees earn more leave? — T.C., Virginia …

Can we withhold pay from workers who clock in early?

08/19/2008

Q. Some of our nonexempt employees occasionally begin work before their established starting times. We’ve always paid them for this time, but I’ve recently read that Georgia employers don’t have to pay an employee for such time if the early start was not approved in advance. Is this true? …

Breaks required—But forcing employees to take them isn’t

08/15/2008
In what may end up being a landmark decision, a California Court of Appeal has held that Golden State employers aren’t required to ensure employees actually take meal and rest breaks. Employers are in the clear as long as they permit breaks and do not prevent or discourage employees from taking them …

Denying FMLA leave could make you liable for lost wages

08/15/2008
If an employer denies legitimate FMLA leave and that denial, in turn, causes an employee to miss work because he becomes depressed or stressed, the employer may have to pay lost wages for those missed days. That’s what the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a unique case that could have far-reaching effects …

Good news for ‘Charter counties’: State overtime and meal break laws don’t apply

08/15/2008
A California Court of Appeal has held that California Labor Code sections dealing with overtime compensation, meal breaks and rest breaks don’t apply to California’s “charter counties.”