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Wages & Hours

Use discipline to enforce your no-Overtime policy

05/01/2007

Q.  We temporarily allowed an hourly employee to come in early and take work home at night. We paid her for overtime on both ends. But now we’ve promoted someone else and told the hourly worker to stop coming in early and taking work home. She said she prefers working early and still does (plus she skips lunch) but reports for just 40 hours. Is she setting us up?—L.B., New York

Complying with the no-Docking rules

05/01/2007

Q. We are a small company with fewer than 20 employees. While I understand the issue of paying exempt employees full salary and docking from the PTO banks when they’re absent, is there someplace that I can go to get an example of a company policy to support a 40-hour-per-week effort from each employee?—E.R., Virginia

One more thing to worry about: Add ‘Unjust enrichment’ to list of labor claims

05/01/2007

Recently, attorneys have added “unjust enrichment” to the growing list of legal claims lobbed at employers. Simply put, employers who receive a benefit from an employee can be sued if the employer’s retention of that benefit is inequitable …

Direct deposit requires employee’s written consent

05/01/2007

Q. We have been told by our accounting office that the company could save a great deal of money if it could get away from the payroll practice of providing employees with checks, and instead go to a direct-deposit arrangement. We have both a non-union work force and a small group in a union. Can we go ahead and implement such a change, or negotiate a change with the union?—M.B.

Require Early Clock-In? Allow Early Clock-Out, or Pay

05/01/2007

Do you require hourly employees to clock in a few minutes before they start their shifts to make sure they’re ready to work? If you don’t start paying at that time, you’d better allow an early clock-out …

Injury that occurs on way to time clock is covered by workers’ comp

05/01/2007

If you haven’t checked for obstructions, hazards or other safety problems around the company time clock or on the way to it, you should. Check the lunchroom for hazards, too. Ohio’s workers’ compensation law covers employees who are injured while on their way to clock in or out, or while on unpaid breaks or at lunch …

Pay back for training costs

05/01/2007

Q. Training in our field is pretty specialized and expensive. We don’t mind investing in our employees, but want to make sure that we get the benefit of the training. We have a requirement that newly trained employees must continue to work for us for at least six months following their training, or they are required to pay back the company. Our problem is how to make sure they pay it. Can we deduct it from their last paycheck?—D.B.

A genuine child-Support court order?

05/01/2007

Q. In this morning’s mail I received a letter from some group I have never heard of, asking for payroll information on an employee. The letter said, “This information is necessary to enforce court-ordered child support.” It does not say that it is a subpoena or a garnishment, and there is no court order or any kind of a waiver from the employee. I have already tossed it in the trash, but I don’t want to do something wrong. Do I need to dig it out?—S.W.

Pregnant Employees: Answers to Your 20 Toughest Legal Questions

04/26/2007
White Paper published by The HR Specialist ______________________ Not many years ago, pregnant women were subject to poor treatment from employers and company insurance plans as well. But the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), enacted in 1978, prohibits discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions.” The PDA required most employers to make […]

Clarifying the partial-Day deduction rule

04/01/2007

Q. I have a question about the partial-day deduction rule. I don’t understand how we can deduct from salaried employees’ paid-leave bank when they are gone for an hour or two during the day since 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