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Compensation & Benefits

No workers’ compensation when employee wouldn’t have been working anyway

09/01/2007

Employees injured at work are entitled to wage-loss payments while they recuperate. But they don’t get payments for the times when they wouldn’t normally have been earning wages …

Hinting employee should quit and offering severance? He still gets unemployment

09/01/2007

If you tell an employee you think it’s time for him or her to leave and offer a severance package as an inducement, you still may have to pay unemployment. That’s true even if the employee signs a statement saying he or she quit voluntarily in order to get the extra money …

Manager wounded after guards were eliminated sues bank

09/01/2007

A SunTrust Bank manager, who was wounded during a bank robbery, has sued the bank because it had eliminated security guard positions for economic reasons just before the robbery …

‘Injured’ nurse not too hurt to work on car for three hours

09/01/2007

A nurse at the Bayonet Point Health & Rehabilitation Center has lost her workers’ compensation claim after the employer videotaped her detailing her car …

Get legal advice to make sure contractors aren’t employees

09/01/2007

California’s unemployment compensation law requires employers to pay into the system for all employees. Independent contractors, on the other hand, are on their own. That might make it tempting to redefine some employees as independent contractors. Don’t do so without careful guidance from your attorney! …

Q&A: Thanks for the two-Week notice … Now clean out your desk

09/01/2007

Q. If an employee resigns and gives two weeks’ notice, can the employer tell the worker that he or she is not needed for the two weeks and avoid paying the person for that time? …

The legal risks of employee loitering: How ‘Hanging around’ can hang you out to dry

09/01/2007

Here’s another good reason (beyond overtime-pay risks) to discourage employees from hanging around before or after their shifts: If they get hurt, they may be able to sue you directly, rather than going through the workers’ comp system. Here’s how to avoid this legal hazard.

Georgia law requires issuing DOL-800 forms for all separations

09/01/2007

Q. It has always been our practice to issue separation notices only when we involuntarily discharge or lay off an employee, but our new plant manager believes we have to issue them even when an employee resigns voluntarily. What’s the rule? …

Clear Work Rules—Like a No-Lying Policy—Help Employers Beat Unemployment Comp Claims

09/01/2007

One of the most important moves Pennsylvania employers can make to cut unwarranted unemployment compensation liability is to establish clear work rules. Those rules should include a requirement that all employees act honestly. Explain to all employees that violating the honesty rule is grounds for termination …

No unemployment for substitute teachers who turn down equivalent positions

09/01/2007

Employees who work for educational institutions on a temporary basis from semester to semester—substitute teachers, for example—may be eligible for unemployment compensation if they are offered a substantially different position (with lower pay) the next term. But if the new assignment is essentially the same as the previous assignment, they can’t refuse the offer and receive unemployment compensation …