Employment Law

Document why you require bilingual skills

01/22/2013

Many organizations serve customers who speak a language other than English, and require employees to have specific bilingual skills. If that describes your organization, make sure you can defend the language requirement if you’re sued.

Pay lawsuits: Keep time records on your side

01/22/2013

While the FLSA requires you to have a reliable system to accurately track employees’ hours and pay, the regulations don’t say which types of timekeeping methods you should use—paper, time clock, etc. Any timekeeping plan is acceptable, the rules say, “as long as it is complete and accurate.” But it’s vital to know exactly what data to track.

Make clear to staff who owns their Twitter followers

01/21/2013

Get an agreement in writing with any employees who use social media under the company’s name. It should clarify who owns those accounts and what will happen to the followers if the employees departs.

NLRB: Don’t fire staff for online gripe sessions

01/21/2013

More employees these days are taking their grumblings about work (and their co-workers) from the office to the virtual watercoolers of Facebook, Twitter and other online outposts. But as a new ruling shows, it’s best to avoid punishing workers for discussing workplace issues online.

Key same-sex marriage ruling: Big impact on benefits

01/18/2013

The U.S. Supreme Court last month agreed to hear a pair of cases challenging state and federal laws that define marriage to include only unions of a man and a woman. Depending on how the court rules, married same-sex couples could become entitled to several federal benefits and legal protections.

Boss gives the ‘cold shoulder’: Discrimination … or just a dis?

01/17/2013

Does it seem like courts keep telling us we have to monitor all juvenile behavior in the workplace? Do we need to hire “conduct cops” for our hallways? A court ruling last month smacked some sense into the laws and said “no”—not all bad-boss behavior is automatically “discrimination.”

If you lose an employment lawsuit, how much will you pay?

01/16/2013

If you’re sued, how much will you have to pay? If your case has just one plaintiff and no “horrible facts” that would make a jury cringe, expect to pay between $0 and $50,000. If you have lots of plaintiffs and super-horrible facts, expect to pay more than $1 million …

Exempt or not? Forget 50% rule for store managers who multitask

01/15/2013

Good news for employers that classify their store managers as exempt from overtime, even though they spend more than half their time doing nonexempt tasks. As the following case shows, store managers can still retain their exempt status if they multitask on exempt and nonexempt duties throughout the day.

Don’t let fear of being sued stop you from disciplining employee

01/14/2013

Don’t let the fear of litigation keep you from making necessary decisions. Sometimes, you have to discipline employees for the good of the organization.

Layoffs looming? Use past reviews to decide who stays and who goes