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Privacy

Employee Privacy Issues

03/07/2007

HR Law 101: None of your organization’s policies can compromise your employees’ right to privacy. You can’t obtain information about workers that’s not relevant to their job duties, and there are restrictions on what information about employees you’re allowed to disseminate …

Release EAP information on a ‘Need to know’ basis

03/01/2007

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) can help employees regain an edge lost to problems like alcohol abuse. But it’s a good idea to keep mum about an employee’s participation in the EAP …

How to respond when employees show mental instability

03/01/2007

A star employee tells you his new depression medicine makes it impossible for him to get to work on time. Must you alter his schedule? …

How far must you go in Florida to protect employees’ data?

03/01/2007

In the process of recruiting, hiring, firing and just running a business, employers accumulate a large amount of personal data from applicants, employees and business associates. Florida law requires employers to take reasonable steps to safeguard such personal data …

Deciding on promotion? Purge file of prior litigious actions

03/01/2007

When it’s time to decide on promotions, do you send employees’ personnel files over to a supervisor or hiring committee to help make the decisions? Make sure the files don’t contain references to past discrimination claims or investigations. Otherwise, you could be inviting a passed-over candidate to sue for retaliation …

NYC firefighters’ burning issue: Is a Locker ‘Private Space’?

03/01/2007

Responding to complaints about pornographic and hostile messages displayed on firefighters’ lockers, the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) asked superior officers to oversee the removal of all offensive materials …

How to comply with state’s new Mental Health Parity Law

03/01/2007

Shortly before leaving office, Gov. Pataki signed New York’s Mental Health Parity Law, which requires insurers to provide mental health benefits in all health insurance policies issued in the state …

FMLA: Recordkeeping Requirements

02/11/2007

HR Law 101: The FMLA’s recordkeeping requirements are less onerous than those of some other federal laws. But you must handle FMLA medical records with the same level of confidentiality as required under the ADA …

10 ways to squeeze more value from your EAP

02/01/2007

Is your organization reaping the full financial benefits from its employee assistance program (EAP)? If employees aren’t using it, the answer is probably “no” …

TV station employee ordered to return stolen information

02/01/2007

A federal judge has ruled that CBS was correct in requesting that an employee at its Pittsburgh KDKA-TV station return all the confidential information she gathered from her boss’s desk and computer …