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Compensation & Benefits

Can we ban breastfeeding at work?

06/28/2012
Q. Can we legally prohibit female workers from breastfeeding at work?

How to respond to an order to garnish an employee’s wages

06/27/2012
Record numbers of bankruptcies and foreclosures have been making a big splash in the news for the past four years. However, a quieter phenomenon—one fraught with traps for unwary employers—is a concurrent and growing trend of court-ordered or government-issued wage garnishments.

Make sure time records can withstand scrutiny

06/27/2012

Employers are responsible for keeping track of the hours and minutes their employees work. If they can’t show their records are accurate, an underpaid overtime case can get costly. That’s because—absent reliable employer records—courts will let employees fill in the timekeeping details.

HR law: All eyes on the Supreme Court

06/26/2012
The center of the HR universe is in Washington, D.C., this week, as the U.S. Supreme Court issues a key decision affecting hiring of undocumented workers and announces it will hear an important case concerning supervisor harassment in its next term. Oh yeah, and then there’s that health care reform case, which should be decided Thursday.

Courts weigh in: How to handle meal breaks not taken

06/26/2012

With workforces lean, it’s important to squeeze every bit of productivity out of employees. But squeeze too hard by not providing employees with state-mandated meal or rest breaks, and you’re likely to face a lawsuit. Two recent cases illustrate.

How should we handle nonexempt pay for overnight, off-site meeting trips?

06/25/2012
Q. We sometimes require our hourly employees to commute from the office to a two-day meeting that includes company-sponsored social activities and an overnight stay. They then return to the office after meetings on the second day. How do we pay them for this time?

Trib pays back $32 million to employee stock plan

06/25/2012
The Tribune Co., the U.S. Department of Labor and Greatbanc Trust Co. have agreed to restore $32 million to the media giant’s employee stock ownership plan.

Stretch flex: The many faces of workplace flexibility

06/22/2012
A choice of work hours and the option to telecommute aren’t the only ways organizations can offer flexibility to employees. If your organization wants to expand its flex options, here are some suggestions:

Tailor benefits message and medium for maximum impact

06/21/2012
Benefits administration is complicated, so it’s a safe bet that employees don’t have a clue about what goes on in your office. Effective benefits communication relies on tailoring your message and medium to the audience you need to reach.

When computing employee pay, are we allowed to round off employee working hours?

06/20/2012
Q. My company uses a time clock to track the hours of nonexempt employees. When we determine the wages to be paid to employees, can we round up or down to the nearest five-minute increment?