• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Be sure managers know they can’t discipline employees for using FMLA

01/14/2013
Don’t let an angry manager turn routine FMLA leave into expensive and time-consuming litigation. Make sure all supervisors understand their FMLA obligations—and that they have no choice but to cheerfully allow em­­ployees to exercise their rights.

New DOL guidance on FMLA leave to care for adult children

01/14/2013
It has always been understood that employees are entitled to take FMLA leave to care for minor children with serious health conditions. But it’s been less clear how the FMLA applies to employees who need time off to care for an adult son or daughter. Now the U.S. Department of Labor has weighed in with guidance.

Combatting ‘cyber-slander’: How to protect your organization

01/14/2013
Complaints from employees, customers and competitors are nothing new. Until recently, if complaints crossed the line from mere opinions to downright lies, companies could threaten a defamation lawsuit. Today, however, companies face a more insidious and growing problem: Internet libel, commonly known as “cyber-slander.”

Track all discipline and check for fairness

01/13/2013
Do you monitor all discipline and make sure employees who break the same rule suffer similar consequences? It’s the best way to win discrimination lawsuits.

Background checks: How safe is too safe?

01/11/2013

Q. We are considering instituting a criminal background check policy for all employee positions. We’ve heard scary stories of lawsuits regarding negligent hiring, and we’d really like to avoid that sort of litigation, not to mention the negative media attention. Is there any downside to having an “across the board” criminal background check policy?

Do we need to track hours for pieceworkers?

01/11/2013

Q. We are doing an internal review of our recordkeeping, and we realized that we track hours for our on-site transcriptionists but we have not been tracking the hours for our transcriptionists who work from home. The on-site employees are non­exempt and we pay them an hourly wage. However, the remote employees are paid piece rates—a certain rate for the number of words transcribed from dictation. Do we have to keep track of their hours?

Orchestra musicians refuse to dance to ballet’s tune

01/11/2013

A labor dispute forced the Minnesota Dance Theatre to use recorded music instead of a live orchestra for December’s holiday presentation of “The Nutcracker” ballet. According to the union representing Twin Cities classical musicians, the sticking point wasn’t monetary, but artistic.

Defense firm pays $100,000 to settle race bias claim

01/11/2013
Aerospace and defense contractor ATK has agreed to pay a job applicant $100,000 after she complained about discriminatory hiring practices at the company’s Eden Prairie plant.

Some small employers may be exempt from the FLSA

01/11/2013
If your business is small enough and local enough (meaning you don’t produce goods for interstate sale or perform work outside your own state), you may not have to follow the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

OK to cut returning veteran’s job if decision wasn’t based on military status

01/11/2013
Generally, members of the military released from active duty service are entitled to return to their former jobs. But what happens if bad economic times force a layoff before the em­­ployee returns to work? Is he exempt from the cuts?