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Employment Law

Recalculate hours worked for 2nd FMLA request

10/10/2008

To qualify for FMLA leave, employees must have worked 1,250 hours in the preceding year. It sounds like a pretty simple calculation, but it’s not. The fact is, you could be allowing leave for employees who aren’t actually eligible for it. Here’s one way to tighten up eligibility …

Follow promotion rules to stop unexpected suits

10/10/2008

HR can never know for sure exactly what’s going on in other parts of the organization. That means it’s easy to be blindsided by a sudden lawsuit. For example, co-workers sometimes spread unfounded rumors about who is up for promotion and who will be bypassed. Such gossip may give some employees an excuse to find a reason to sue …

Obesity discrimination is common — and against the law

10/10/2008

A recent study by Michigan State University and Hope College found that employers perceive overweight workers as lazier, more emotionally unstable and harder to get along with than their “normal weight” counterparts.

Use blind résumé review for bias-free hiring, promotions

10/10/2008

Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful to refuse to hire or recruit someone because of “religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight or marital status.” But applicants sometimes provide that information on their résumés. Have someone take those résumés and black out any information that hints at any of those protected categories.

Courts rein in some out-of-bounds employee lawsuits

10/10/2008

Sometimes, it seems as if employees and their attorneys will try anything to squeeze money from employers. But now some courts are telling employees, “Enough is enough.”

Michigan SEIU official on leave in wake of L.A. allegations

10/10/2008

Rickman Jackson, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Michigan, has taken a voluntary leave of absence during an investigation into questionable financial dealings at the Los Angeles SEIU chapter …

Sales VP took sales overseas

10/10/2008

Three former employees of Metaldyne Corp. in Plymouth have pleaded guilty to plotting to steal trade secrets and sell them to industry competitor Chongqing Huafu Industry Co. of Chongqing, China …

Independent contractor tanks firm

10/10/2008

For five years, Eric McAlpine worked on an independent contractor basis as a bookkeeper for American Titleworks. During that period, he stole a staggering $800,000 in checks from real estate buyers and sellers and banks, plus almost $1.5 million from escrow accounts …

New law: Employers must review outside investigators’ work

10/10/2008

In May 2008, Michigan enacted the Professional Investigator Licensure Act. The act has a significant impact on how employers can conduct background checks and investigations. A violation of the act is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than four years or a fine of not more than $5,000, or both …

Can we deduct pay from exempt employees who have used up PTO and FMLA leave?

10/10/2008

Q. We have an employee who has a degree in accounting and is treated as a salaried, exempt professional employee under the FLSA. He became ill and has used his 12 weeks of FMLA leave. He chose to use the PTO leave concurrent with his FMLA leave. Since he returned, he has missed seven additional days of work. Can the company deduct these missed days from his pay without losing the salaried, exempt status?