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Employment Law

Exhibit A: What not to ask applicants for HR jobs

11/21/2008

Frank Bruno aced his first round of interviews for an HR director job at Unitek USA in Pennsylvania. But during his final interview, one of the company’s board members asked the 55-year-old Bruno, “How old are you, 78?”

‘Hey, lady! That’s a man’s job!’

11/21/2008

Maybe a long, long time ago, in a far, far away place, folks used to tell women, “Oh, you can’t do that … it’s a man’s job.” Maybe the work was too heavy, muddy or risky? But welcome to 2009, where jobs are no longer classified by gender. Better check to make sure your hiring managers understand that, too!

Must we pay for hours lost due to power failure?

11/21/2008

Q. We recently had a power outage and called employees who weren’t in yet to tell them to come in when the power was back up. We then gave these people a chance to make up the lost time by working late or using paid time off. Do we have to pay them for the hours they missed?

Can we make employees use sick leave for FMLA?

11/21/2008

Q. Our employees earn paid sick and vacation leave. Can we require them to use their paid leave at the same time they take unpaid FMLA leave? Otherwise, it seems as if they could use up paid leave and still take 12 unpaid weeks off.

How to merge workers’ comp and FMLA

11/21/2008

Q. One of our employees was injured on the job. She went to the hospital the same night, had surgery and was out of work for eight days. Can we apply FMLA leave or sick leave to that time, even if she ends up being paid through workers’ comp?

Can we require worker to wear hearing aid?

11/21/2008

Q. An employee with severe hearing loss refuses to use his hearing aid. He works in a loud environment with forklifts and other hazards. Can we force him to wear the hearing aid or otherwise remove him from the floor? We think he’s endangering himself because he can’t hear someone warning him about a hazard.

Exception covers some, not all, church staff

11/20/2008

Churches, church schools and other religious institutions don’t always have to follow federal employment laws. That’s because religious entities are entitled to operate free of interference with their religious practices—if the employees in question are part of that religious practice.

Job duties, degree of employer control dictate employee status

11/20/2008

Just calling a worker an independent contractor doesn’t make that worker an independent contractor. It’s the reality on the ground that counts—that is, how much control the individual has over her time, hours and duties.

Honesty clause on application can stop frivolous lawsuits

11/20/2008

Here’s a reason to make sure that your applications include an honesty provision: If an applicant sues for discrimination, she won’t get very far if you catch her being less than honest on the application.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles? Archway faces WARN suit

11/20/2008

A group of employees has filed a lawsuit against Battle Creek-based Archway Cookies, alleging the company violated the federal WARN Act when it terminated hundreds of workers in California, Michigan and Ohio in October.