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Employment Law

Tell employees on FMLA leave: No working from home

12/30/2009

Because FMLA leave is an entitlement, employers aren’t allowed to interfere with it. And interference can include requiring employees to perform work during their leave. That’s why it’s important to make arrangements for work to be completed without help from the employee on leave.

Using partial SSN as employee ID: Is that legal?

12/29/2009

Q. Can we use the last four digits of our employees’ Social Security number (SSN) as their employee identification number? It would make tracking hours on our log-in time clock much easier.

DOJ turns up heat on USERRA violators

12/28/2009

The U.S. Department of Justice says it has begun increasing its enforcement efforts on employers that it suspects discriminated against military members returning to the private-sector workforce. In the first six months of 2009, the department filed 14 lawsuits based on violations of USERRA.

Don’t automatically grant FMLA leave for stress

12/28/2009

Employees often claim their jobs stress them out. And for some, it’s so bad they feel they need to take off work for a week or so to cope. That doesn’t mean, however, that employees are automatically entitled to use FMLA leave. Even if they get a doctor to write a note “prescribing” rest, they don’t qualify for FMLA leave unless there’s some additional treatment ordered, such as medication or counseling.

Evaluating employee before return to work? Know difference between medical, agility tests

12/25/2009

Under the ADA, employers aren’t allowed to subject employees to medical tests unless they can prove that the examinations are job-related and consistent with business necessity. However, they can ask employees to perform agility tests. The line between the two is difficult to find. But get it wrong, and you may have an ADA discrimination case on your hands.

Assigning black staff to black clients: Is that bias?

12/24/2009

Here’s a problem you might not see coming: Let’s say you have an employee who belongs to a protected class, and whose skills you believe will help when relating to others of the same protected class—language or cultural awareness skills, for example. Before you decide to assign work to the employee based on those skills, consider whether doing so is, in effect, unspoken discrimination.

You don’t have to put up with insubordination

12/24/2009

Employees who file discrimination complaints sometimes end up with a chip on their shoulders while the complaint is pending. And since they know it’s illegal for employers to retaliate against them, they’re on the lookout for anything that seems like punishment. But that doesn’t mean employers have to shy away from disciplining those employees when it’s deserved.

Don’t know who’s harassing? What to do

12/24/2009

What’s an employer to do when an employee complains of anonymous harassment? You may never be able to figure out who is doing the harassing, but you must still do something—if only to show that your company doesn’t approve. Begin by opening an internal investigation, just as you would for any other complaint.

Use objective criteria—and beware subjective judgment calls—when deciding promotions

12/24/2009

Nothing speeds a disappointed job-seeker’s trip to court like a selection process based on an employer’s use of subjective criteria to make the hiring decision. That’s especially true if the biggest deciding factor is subjective, while objective factors receive lesser weight.

Internal wage-and-hour complaints don’t count as ‘testimony’ in FLSA retaliation cases

12/24/2009

The Fair Labor Standards Act includes a retaliation clause that bars employers from punishing employees who provide “testimony” in FLSA cases. That doesn’t mean, however, that employees who complain internally about wage-and-hour issues are automatically protected.