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Compensation & Benefits

Pension law makes it OK to help employees choose investments

04/01/2007

No matter how highly educated your employees are, they’re probably not professional investment experts. Yet it’s likely your organization has shifted responsibility for retirement savings to those employees. But now the Pension Protection Act of 2006 makes it safe for employers to arrange for employees to receive personalized, specific advice on investments …

Unions say ALL workers should eligible for state minimum wage

04/01/2007

The AFL-CIO is working to overturn provisions of Ohio House bill 690, which excludes farm, home health care and amusement park workers from the state’s recent minimum wage increase …

Can we offer wage hike to head off union campaign?

04/01/2007

Q. We are a nonunion company and obviously would like to stay that way. We gave a very modest wage increase six months ago, and we just learned that another company in the same industrial park got hit with a union organizing campaign. I think we should be proactive. Normally we review wages every 12 months, but I want to recommend to my management team that we break that cycle and do a wage increase now. Can we get in any trouble by going ahead with a wage increase now, even though it’s not in keeping with our regular practice? —C.O.

Employees at Harley-Davidson’s York Facility End Two-Week Strike

04/01/2007

Management and union employees at Harley-Davidson’s York manufacturing plant last month settled a two-week walkout …

How to draft a telecommuting policy

04/01/2007

Q. More employees are asking to telecommute, as are prospective hires for difficult-to-fill positions. If we have such a policy, what should be included to ensure there isn’t any favoritism among workers?

Exempt status in question? ‘Good-Faith’ reply saves the day

04/01/2007

If an employee comes forward to protest that you owe him overtime pay because he should truly be a nonexempt worker, it pays to act fast and be able to show good cause why you classified him as exempt in the first place …

New rules haven’t eased exempt/Nonexempt confusion

04/01/2007

Amid much fanfare, the U.S. Labor Department in 2004 rewrote the rules that determine which employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (not eligible for overtime) and which are nonexempt (eligible for overtime). The goal was to ease confusion and lawsuits. But, so far, that hasn’t happened …

HR as mobsters: Supreme Court lets workers use organized-Crime law to sue their employers

04/01/2007

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that a group of employees at a Georgia carpet company can use state and federal anti-racketeering laws to sue their employer …

Must we pay hourly worker for drive to conference?

04/01/2007

Q. Recently a nonexempt employee left from work to attend a two-day conference. She left at 2:30 p.m. and arrived at the location at 5:00 p.m. I interpret that we should pay for eight hours since her travel was from the work location and within normal work hours. The next day, she left the conference at 4:15 p.m. and arrived back in town at 7 p.m., but she didn’t stop at the office. Since travel time is outside of normal (8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.) work hours, is she paid for travel time or just for work hours attending conference? —M.B., Georgia

More clarity on the partial-Day deduction rule

04/01/2007

Q. I have a question about deducting leave for salaried staff. I don’t understand how we can deduct from employees’ paid-leave bank when they are gone for an hour or two during the day, when we don’t pay them anything extra when they work 50 hours in a week. For example, if an employee works 10-hour days on a regular basis, is it OK to charge her vacation time when she leaves an hour or two early? — J.H., Minnesota