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Susan Lessack

What are the rules on giving truthful references about former employees?

04/24/2012
Q. An employer asked us for a job verification on an employee we fired. The request includes a written consent form from the worker allowing the query. Can I release any and all information regarding the former employee’s history with us?

After accident in company car, can we recover insurance deductible using payroll deductions?

04/24/2012

Q. We have a fleet of company cars. If an employee is at fault in an accident, is it legal for us to require reimbursement for the $500 deductible by reducing his pay over a period of three or four pay cycles?

Must we allow vacation leave accrual while employees are out on FMLA leave?

03/29/2012
Q. I’m under the impression that our company is obligated to give employees all vacation accrued up to the time of their FMLA leave, but we’re not obligated to let employees accrue vacation leave during their FMLA leave. Am I right?

Do we have to post all jobs internally?

03/29/2012
Q. We rarely post high-level management jobs internally. Must all jobs be posted internally so someone can’t file suit claiming “pre-selection” or that he never had a chance to apply?

Is it risky to indemnify a candidate against violating a noncompete agreement?

03/29/2012
Q. We want to hire someone who signed a noncompete agreement with his current employer. He asked us to indemnify him in the event his employer sues him. What are the legal risks associated with agreeing to indemnify him?

Can we force forfeiture of vacation days?

03/29/2012
Q. Under our company policy, an employee who fails to give 20 working days’ notice before resigning forfeits any earned vacation days. Is this policy lawful?

Hacked! How to limit liability for employee data breaches

03/29/2012

Imagine this nightmare scenario: You’ve contracted with a vendor to enter personnel data into a new computer system, including employees’ Social Security numbers, addresses, names of dependents, health records and bank account routing numbers. Then the vendor notifies you that employee data was somehow stolen or lost. What do you do?

What’s our duty to accommodate a religious need we just learned about?

02/22/2012
Q. An employee we hired a couple weeks ago just told us that he is Muslim and can’t work on Fridays. During the interview, he was asked whether anything would prohibit his working a proposed schedule that specifically included Fridays. He said no, in writing. Can we let this guy go?

What should we do? If employee took all her comp time, she couldn’t do her job

02/22/2012
Q. We have an exempt supervisor who has accumulated more than 400 hours of comp time over the past year. It’s almost impossible for her to take 400 hours of comp time and still do her job. What is our obligation to pay for this comp time? How can this issue best be resolved?

Can we ban drinking and driving company car?

02/22/2012
Q. We recently learned that an employee who drives a company vehicle is stopping on the way home for a few drinks. Should we notify all employees that if they use drugs or alcohol while driving a company vehicle, they will be fired?