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Q&A

USERRA and the choice of paying or not paying for health insurance

04/10/2008
Q. It has been our company’s policy to maintain health insurance coverage for the families of employees who are serving in Iraq. It has recently come to our attention that one such family includes a spouse who is working, and the spouse has declined health insurance coverage at her job because we have been providing it free of charge. I have been asked whether we have an ongoing obligation to provide for this family’s health insurance coverage while our employee is on leave to serve in the military …

ADA and reasonable accommodations

04/10/2008
Q. We have a two-story building with production operations on the first floor and administrative offices on both the first and second floors. There is no elevator in the building. An office employee who works in a department on the second floor has been off work for a back injury. Now he wants to return to work but cannot climb the stairs. Do we have to reassign the employee to the first floor? There is no available space there, and the employee’s work duties are on the second floor …

Are background checks required in Illinois?

04/09/2008
Q. I have heard that Illinois law requires background checks for employees. Is this true? …

Are noncompetes enforceable on employees who have been fired?

04/09/2008
Q. In Illinois, do noncompete agreements apply even when someone is terminated, as opposed to resigning? …

Charging employees for uniforms

04/08/2008
Q. We would like to require employees to pay for their work uniforms. Can we do this? …

Exempt employees and a reduced workweek

04/08/2008
Q. During our slow season, we would like to require employees to work just four days per week in order save on labor costs. Can we require exempt employees to participate? …

A good reference for a good worker, even though we fired him?

04/07/2008
Q. We had to fire a good worker because of absenteeism problems. When someone who wants to hire him calls to verify past employment, what can we say about this man? …

Wage-and-Hour, on-Call and mileage issues for ‘Exempt’ workers

04/07/2008
Q. I own a home-health agency. Although my licensed vocational nurses are paid by the visit, my registered nursing staff is considered management. They are salaried. Are we lawfully required to pay our RNs “on-call” pay or mileage? Although it’s not documented as such, we have taken these things into consideration when setting their salaries …

Asking to get fired in order to receive unemployment comp benefits

04/01/2008
Q. An employee just told me he wants to resign, but he asked to be fired instead of resigning. He said it had to do with unemployment benefits. What is the significance? …

Will a disclaimer protect us from all claims related to our handbook?

04/01/2008
Q. Our handbook has a bold and conspicuous disclaimer stating that everyone is an at-will employee and that nothing in the handbook alters the at-will relationship. Is that sufficient to protect the company from claims based on the handbook? …