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Compensation & Benefits

Instruct supervisors to prohibit working off the clock

05/30/2008
A Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime claim is one of the most dangerous lawsuits employers can face. If one or two employees claim they worked off the clock before or after punching the time clock, their attorneys may try to represent every employee companywide who did the same thing …

Continental Tire must fund VEBA

05/28/2008
Charlotte-based Continental Tire North America has agreed to pay $158 million into a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, to continue health care benefits for approximately 2,400 retirees and workers. The workers sued after Continental reduced retiree health care benefits …

An introduction to North Carolina Employment Security Law

05/28/2008
 The North Carolina Employment Security Law provides unemployment compensation benefits for some employees who lose their jobs. To qualify, unemployed workers must have registered for work and periodically report to an unemployment office. Occasionally eligibility disputes find their way into court …

Polls open, time off?

05/28/2008
Q. Must I allow my employees time off to vote? …

Any requirement to offer vacation?

05/28/2008
Q. My company does not have a vacation policy. Should it? …

Requirements for maintaining payroll records

05/28/2008
Q. What payroll records must my company keep under North Carolina law?…

Are breaks required in North Carolina?

05/28/2008
Q. Must a North Carolina employer allow its employees certain rest or meal periods? …

USI defers decision on offering same-Sex partner benefits

05/27/2008
The University of Southern Indiana (USI) board of trustees opted not to vote on a resolution to grant employment benefits to same-sex domestic partners. The trustees decided to take more time to review the issue …

$500 buys a lot of cigarettes

05/27/2008
Nobody really likes being reformed, and that can make administering corporate wellness programs tricky, as Whirlpool recently found out. The company suspended 39 workers at its Evansville plant after discovering they lied about being nonsmokers to get a $500 discount on health insurance …

Concurrently running FMLA leave, vacation time and short-Term disability

05/27/2008
Q. Our policy requires an employee out on FMLA leave to run any accrued vacation or sick time concurrently with FMLA leave until that time is used up. (At that point, the FMLA leave becomes unpaid.) We also have a short-term disability (STD) policy that kicks in after seven consecutive days and lasts up to eight weeks. A pregnant employee recently requested 10 weeks of FMLA leave, starting upon the birth of her child. She currently has 3½ weeks of accrued vacation time. Can we require her to use up all of her vacation time once she goes out on maternity leave, even though she is also receiving STD payments? …