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

Policies / Handbooks

Inject more oversight, responsibility into flex schedules

04/01/2006

With flexible schedules reaching near-entitlement status, some employers are pulling in the reins on this runaway perk.
A tighter and clearer flex-schedule policy can help you regain control over the benefit and increase productivity …

No need to announce reasons for firing

04/01/2006

Q. We fired a part-time employee for stealing a gift card out of the trash. We have a policy against taking anything of value out of the garbage. The next day, his supervisor announced to everyone that the employee had been fired for theft. I don’t think it was appropriate to tell others the reason. Was it? And what should we say if someone calls for a reference? —A.L., Arkansas

How to cope with seriously ill employees

04/01/2006
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Employee accessing child porn: Just saying ‘Stop’ isn’t enough

03/01/2006

When it comes to what your employees do on the Internet, "Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil" is a bad policy. If you know someone is using company assets and company time to engage in illegal activity, you may be obligated to report the activity to the appropriate authorities …

Put yourself in employees’ shoes to decide if they’re disabled

03/01/2006

Some ailments obviously rise to the level of "disability" under the ADA. Others are more marginal. To help you make that decision, try to look at life from that employee’s point of view. It’s a common trial tactic used by plaintiffs’ lawyers to help sway juries in ADA cases …

Medication may limit employees’ FMLA reinstatement rights

03/01/2006

What happens if an employee tries to return to work after FMLA leave but isn’t quite recovered? In that case, you can turn the employee away if he or she can’t perform the job’s essential functions. That scenario often plays out when the returning employee’s job involves operating machinery or driving and the person must take medication …

Fighting a unionization effort: do’s and don’ts

03/01/2006

Union membership has fallen dramatically in recent decades, but the labor movement is far from dead. The biggest change: In 2005, the breakaway "Change to Win" movement seized control over one-third of the powerful AFL-CIO’s unions. Change to Win lured the unions away by promising to shift the focus from political activism to organizing as many U.S. employers as possible. Is your business next? …

Beware of a growing risk: harassment by customers

03/01/2006

Too many employers think harassment is a problem only when it’s an employee-on-employee thing. Recent court rulings prove that you can be held liable even when outsiders harass your employees. Taking action may cost you a customer, but courts say defending employees must come first …

Plan Ahead for Take-the-Kids-to-Work Day: April 27

03/01/2006

Annually, the fourth Thursday in April (April 27 this year) is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, hosted by the Ms. Foundation for Women. To head off requests and confusion about whether/when the kids can come, establish some ground rules …

EEOC Targeting Cases of Years-Old Discrimination

02/01/2006

Don’t think that an employee who quietly suffers name-calling for years can’t sue. Courts and the EEOC won’t be swayed by your argument that "he put up with it for 20 years, so how bad could it have been?" …