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David B. Ritter

Must we grant dad intermittent FMLA leave after baby is born?

05/17/2010
Q. Do we have to grant an employee’s request for intermittent FMLA leave to care for his newborn son?

Calculating the time-worked threshold for FMLA eligibility

05/17/2010

To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee “must have been employed for at least 1,250 hours of service” with his or her employer during the 12 months prior to the commencement of the FMLA leave. That seems simple enough. But in the world of FMLA administration, nothing is as simple as it seems.

Must we give extra pay for extra duties?

05/13/2010
Q. We are short-staffed and some of our employees have been assigned tasks beyond what they were hired to do. Some have said they want more money because of this. Do we have to increase their pay?

Can employees moonlight while on FMLA leave?

05/06/2010
Q. One of our employees is off on FMLA leave to care for a sick child. But we know she is also working a second job. We need her back and it seems to me if she can take part-time work, she could work at least a reduced schedule for us instead. Can we cancel her leave?

What is legal discipline for unauthorized overtime?

04/30/2010
Q. I know I can’t refuse to pay an hourly employee who works overtime even though I never authorized it. What I don’t understand is what kind of discipline should I implement? Can I, for example, deny a cost-of-living increase?

Can we charge worker a fee for lost paychecks?

04/16/2010
Q. One of our employees is constantly misplacing things, like his W-2 forms and his checks. It’s getting annoying. Can we make him pay a fee? We’re thinking this might make him more careful.

Can we force employees to use vacation days as part of military leave?

04/15/2010
Q. We provide unpaid leave to employees who are called up to serve in the armed forces, in accordance with the terms and conditions the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). May we require employees to concurrently exhaust any earned but unused vacation that they may have accumulated?

Can we force employees to use vacation days as part of FMLA leave?

04/15/2010
Q. In accordance with the FMLA, we provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to eligible employees for a qualified reason. Leave under the FMLA is unpaid. However, may we require employees to concurrently exhaust any earned but unused vacation time that they may have accumulated?

How should we handle inquiries about age that we need to conduct background checks?

04/15/2010
Q. We require all applicants to complete a pre-employment screening form that asks for their date of birth. The firm that conducts our background checks needs that information to perform the screening. Does this practice run afoul of laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of age?

Include an extension clause in your noncompete agreements

04/15/2010
In the wake of a recent Illinois court decision in Citadel Investment Group, LLC v. Teza Technologies LLC, employers should rethink their noncompete agreements. Without fine tuning, these contracts may not work as well as they could.