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HR Management

Pass along flu prevention tips to employees

01/17/2018

This year’s flu season is suddenly shaping up to be worse than public health officials expected. To keep your employees healthy and keep your business running smoothly despite the influenza outbreak, it pays to launch an impromptu flu awareness campaign.

OSHA whistleblower awarded more than $173,000

01/09/2018

An employee who was fired for reporting improper asbestos removal procedures at a Gloverville, N.Y. school worksite in 2010 has been awarded $173,794 in damages.

Training may be nonexempt even for exempt staff

01/03/2018

Do you offer an extended training period for newly hired workers who will be performing high-skill, exempt administrative jobs? If so, you may have to treat them as hourly workers during the training period when they are not actually performing work, but learning how to do their new jobs.

Court: Drug testing is not an inherent invasion of employee privacy

01/02/2018

Employers can drug test employees as part of a safety program. The mere existence of a properly designed testing program does not invade a worker’s right to privacy.

Beware firing safety whistleblowers

01/02/2018

The Trump administration’s Department of Labor is aggressively going after employers that fire workers who report alleged workplace safety violations. It’s one reason to seek expert legal advice before disciplining any potential whistleblower—even for behavior or poor work performance that seems unrelated to any safety report.

Enforce rules fairly and even-handedly, document any differences in discipline

01/02/2018

Good employers discipline everyone who violates work rules, without regard for protected characteristics. That may seem obvious, but sometimes supervisors get sloppy and decide that a particular employee should be punished for a violation another employee got away with.

The HR I.Q. Test: January ’18

01/01/2018

Here’s your monthly quiz on HR news and trends.

The NLRB strikes back: 4 big pro-employer moves

12/18/2017
In a flurry of decisions in recent days, the National Labor Relations Board reversed years of pro-employee labor rulings that employers opposed. Business groups cheered the decisions, saying they’ll bring much-needed balance to employer-employee relationships. Three key decisions, rendered on Dec. 14 and 15, overturned a string of pro-worker, pro-union NLRB rulings. All were timed […]

Essentia Healthcare fires 50 staff for refusing flu shots

12/18/2017

Citing the risk to patients at its 15 hospitals and 75 clinics, Essentia required employees to get vaccinated or provide documentation substantiating medical or religious objections to the inoculations.

Under siege on social media? Choose words carefully when responding

12/18/2017

If an aggrieved employee launches a social media campaign against your organization, it can be hard to figure out how to respond. However, you can defend yourself. If it’s worded carefully, your response won’t add fuel to the legal fire that comes in the wake of an employee’s lawsuit.