HR MANAGEMENT

Employer can access hard drive on company-Owned laptop 05/16/2008   Employers that provide laptops to employees and that suspect an employee might be aiding a competitor can inspect the company-owned laptop without violating the employee’s right to privacy. Employers should, however, exercise discretion while searching the computer ...

What are our responsibilities when an employee has been threatened with violence? 05/16/2008     Q. One of our employees has a boyfriend who has threatened her with physical violence. What steps, if any, should we take to protect the employee in the workplace? ...

Should we now be using the new I-9 Forms to document worker eligibility? 05/16/2008     Q. Our HR department is using I-9 forms from several years ago. At what point should we use the new revised form issued by the federal government? ...

Must you give employees Sundays off for 'TV church'? 05/15/2008    If employees ask for Sundays off from work for religious reasons, must they attend services in an actual church or synagogue that day? A new court ruling clarifies that the answer is “no” ...

Evenly enforce policy prohibiting employee fraternization 05/14/2008   If, like some companies, you have a policy forbidding dating or relationships between supervisors and hourly employees, make sure you enforce the rule consistently ...

Schaumburg woman indicted in alleged international corporate espionage scheme 05/14/2008   Hanjuan Jin, a former software engineer for a suburban Chicago telecommunications firm identified as “Company A” for security reasons, has been indicted on charges of stealing business trade secrets and attempting to take them to China ...

Don't let jury duty force you to defend yourself in court 05/14/2008   Both Illinois and federal laws require employers to let their employees off for jury duty. Additionally, employers may not penalize employees for serving on a jury. No matter how obvious this is, every now and then, employers try to get back at employees who perform their civic duties. It never works ...

HR & the Slump: The 3 Big Trends Affecting Employee Relations 05/13/2008   While all economic cycles share certain features, they also have unique effects. What’s different for HR in the 2008 downturn versus the last one? Here are three distinctive characteristics of the current economic slump that are affecting your employees—and potentially reshaping your HR programs:

Court clears up confusion over meal breaks 05/13/2008   Do you have to provide employees who work eight hours or more during a shift with an unpaid meal break away from all job responsibilities? Or can you continue to pay employees while they eat, expecting them to take calls or respond to work needs? ...

Diversity initiatives: Make sure your good intentions are lawful 05/13/2008   Title VII forbids employers from basing employment decisions on an individual’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin. But the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld an employer’s right to voluntarily adopt race- and gender-conscious employment policies that the employer thinks will remedy inherent work force imbalances ...

Must manager release notes on performance when employee requests personnel file? 05/13/2008   Q. One of our managers keeps notes of performance issues in a file that he uses for completing performance appraisals. One person he supervises has made a written request to see her personnel file—and specifically asked for information in the manager’s file. Do we have to give the notes to the employee? ...

Of MySpace & Money: Don't Try to Muzzle Millennials' Salary Talk 05/13/2008   You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century! The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here's why.

Put a lid on workplace trash talk that demeans women 05/12/2008   The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has just expanded employee rights in alleged sexual harassment cases. The court has ruled that sexually explicit language that tends to demean women can be the basis of a sexual harassment and hostile work environment claim even if the language is not aimed at a particular woman ...

Enraged condo owner brandishes gun, terrifies employees 05/12/2008   A 57-year-old resident of a Pompano Beach condominium, enraged by a bill for more than $4,000 in condominium owners’ association fees, barged into the complex’s clubhouse on April 25 and demanded to speak with an employee. Patrick Dellisanti ranted about the bill, then pulled out a handgun ...

BJ's warehouse store settles $100K discrimination suit 05/12/2008   BJ’s Wholesale Club will pay $100,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit. The manager of the company’s Homestead store, who is Cuban-American, allegedly subjected a black employee and a Puerto Rican employee to numerous racial slurs ...