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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 …

What are the rules on parenting leave for small employers?

05/13/2008
Q. We are a small shop with 15 employees. One of our full-time employees who has been with us for more than five years recently announced that his wife is pregnant. He requested eight weeks’ leave after the baby is born. Are we required to give him this leave? …

Must we offer the same position to a temp worker returning from FMLA leave?

05/09/2008
Q. We lease some of our workers from an agency. The agency handles all personnel needs of its employees, but our supervisors provide day-to-day direction to the workers. One of our agency employees, Jane, informed the agency that she was taking FMLA leave for her pregnancy. While Jane was out on leave, the agency supplied us with a replacement, Mary. Jane’s FMLA leave is over, and the agency wants to send her back. We would prefer to keep Mary. Does the FMLA oblige us to let Mary go and bring Jane back? …

Base reinstatement on job held at time leave began

05/07/2008
For determining reinstatement rights under the FMLA, it’s the job the employee was in at the time she began her FMLA leave that counts. As long as the job she returns to is substantially equivalent, it does not matter that the job may be below her capacities and educational background …

Absent without leave: Can we fire for violating vacation policy?

05/06/2008
Q. We recently could not reach an employee who works off-site. Then we learned he was responding to customer messages by saying he was on vacation. After we learned this, he contacted his supervisor and said he had been on vacation and would be on vacation the rest of the week. His supervisor reports that he had not requested vacation time beforehand—and our policy states that vacation time must be preapproved. This employee had been a marginal performer, and now his supervisor wants to fire him. Can we fire him for this? …

Even small differences can justify different treatment

05/05/2008
An employee sometimes will look for any reason to file a lawsuit—especially if she thinks she has been treated unfairly but doesn’t have any direct evidence. That’s one good reason for justifying all employment-related decisions …

No second opinion? You can challenge FMLA leave later

05/02/2008
What if you want to challenge an employee’s FMLA certification later—after you find out he’s been working elsewhere while on FMLA leave, for example? Are you stuck because you didn’t ask for a second or third medical opinion?…

Take time off seriously—By setting a formal vacation policy

05/02/2008
You wouldn’t dream of having informal payroll policies, right? Yet too many employers treat vacation time—a form of compensation—as a casual entitlement. Getting too informal can cost you. A sound vacation policy addresses the following five elements …

N.J. adopts paid family-Leave law

05/02/2008
New Jersey has become the third state to adopt paid family leave. The law will allow workers to take up to six weeks of paid leave to care for newborns, newly adopted children or sick relatives. Workers, who will pay for the benefit through payroll deductions starting Jan. 1, will be entitled to two-thirds of their salary …

Can a wellness program reduce absenteeism?

05/02/2008
Organizations with wellness programs report fewer sick days among participants, according to PreventDisease.com…