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Compensation & Benefits

Pay former workers promptly; don’t wait for them to ask

07/01/2000

Audra Wales called in sick to the Wendy’s restaurant where she worked on Jan. 11 and then showed up later that day to pick up her regular paycheck. During a dispute …

Congress clarifies: Stock options are benefits, not pay

07/01/2000
If you give stock options to nonexempt workers, don’t worry that the additional compensation will drive up their overtime pay. President Clinton has signed legislation …

Limits on payroll deductions

07/01/2000

Q. An employee has not returned our calls or come to work at our hotel for over a week. She has a set of office keys and owes money for laundry. Can I hold her check until she returns the keys or pays for her laundry? Alternatively, can I deduct the cost of replacing the keys and laundry from her last paycheck? —I.C., Maryland

Recover training costs

07/01/2000

Q. Can we require an employee to sign an agreement to reimburse the company for half the expenses related to training, if the employee resigns within six months? —S.D., Northern Marianas

EEOC beefs up wage-bias arsenal

07/01/2000
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is putting action behind its talk of cracking down on unequal pay. A new internal task force …

Breast-feeding: Develop wise policy for staff, customers

07/01/2000
With half of new mothers returning to work within three months of giving birth, breast-feeding has become a hot workplace issue. The American Academy of Pediatrics …

Specify if workers must stay to collect bonuses

06/01/2000

Q. Our company pays quarterly and annual bonuses (depending on the position). If an employee is here throughout the entire quarter/year, but leaves before the bonuses are paid out, is he still entitled to the bonus? Our company has no written documentation stating that you must be employed at the time the bonus is paid. —J.S., Colorado

Watch for warning signs of workers’ comp fraud

06/01/2000

Q. We’ve had a number of suspicious injuries at work this year. We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but how can we determine if these injuries are part of a workers’ comp insurance fraud scheme? —K.H., Mississippi

Avoid snap decision on whether illness would qualify under FMLA

06/01/2000
When her three-year-old son awoke with a high fever, congestion and an earache, Juanita Caldwell got permission from an assistant manager to miss her morning …

Public employers can avoid comp-time cash payouts

06/01/2000
Public employers not only have the leeway to offer comp time to nonexempt workers, they can now force the workers to use it. Congress gave state and local governments the …