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Wages & Hours

Can we dock sick time for exempt employees?

12/01/2007
Q. Will I risk losing an employee’s exempt status if I deduct from his or her wages for full-day absences of one or more days?

Checklist: FLSA: Exempt vs. Nonexempt Status

11/20/2007
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How to Make Legally Smart Job Offers

11/19/2007
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No matter how many contracts, OT still starts after 40 hours

11/01/2007

Do you have employees working on different contracts during the same week? If so, you must make sure you add up their total number of hours and pay overtime for the hours in excess of 40 per week. You can’t issue separate paychecks for each contract and avoid overtime payments. The Fair Labor Standards Act clearly states that all hours worked “for a particular employer” count for overtime, even if the work is done on different projects or contracts.

Undocumented worker can get back wages

11/01/2007

No doubt, you’ve read about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to enforce the nation’s immigration laws by cracking down on employers that hire and employ illegal immigrants. So you might be surprised to learn that a New York state court has ruled that even an illegal immigrant who admits he forged his I-9 documentation and was fired can sue for state wage-law violations …

Hire an illegal immigrant, you can pay for his injuries, too

11/01/2007

Jose Gomez was working on the demolition crew at a building in Flushing, jackhammering a concrete slab, when the work site collapsed. The resulting fall left Gomez a paraplegic. He filed suit for lost wages. That’s when his employers officially noted Gomez was in the country illegally and was not entitled to such benefits …

Time, room for breast-Feeding moms (Maybe a toilet, too)

11/01/2007

An August amendment to the New York Labor Law guarantees time and space for breast-feeding mothers to express milk at work, but stops short of emancipating them from the lowly toilet stall …

Xerox employees buy time off through payroll deduction

11/01/2007

Employees at Xerox can buy extra vacation time through a payroll deduction. Instead of paying for the extra vacation time all at once, employees can make weekly or monthly fixed-rate installments through payroll deductions …

Don’t blow off legal papers unless you’re prepared to personally pay back wages

11/01/2007

Does your organization have a process in place for handling legal paperwork? If not, you risk a default judgment that could cost big bucks. If your organization is served with a lawsuit and fails to respond, a court may refuse to let it enter a late defense. And if the organization can’t participate, the court will accept as true everything the employee who is suing says in the complaint …

Beware managers who participate in drive to unionize workers

11/01/2007

When union-organizing efforts target a business, managers usually sit on the sidelines. But managers may have sympathies with either side, and their actions could cause problems for either the employer or the union. Your best bet is to rely on professional negotiators and labor counsel …