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Employee Relations

Worker’s hour count is off—Now what?

12/31/2008

Q. We do not believe that one of our employees is keeping accurate time records of her work. Can we pay her what we believe she worked instead of what her time records show?

The firing meeting: 4 classic mistakes

12/30/2008

Terminating an employee is one of the most stressful tasks managers and HR pros will ever have to face. Don’t let a difficult job turn into a legal nightmare too. Avoid these common firing mistakes, and you’ll probably avoid an expensive trip to court as well.

What happens if we fail to provide COBRA notice upon termination?

12/24/2008

Q. What kinds of penalties or liability does an employer face if it fails to provide notice of COBRA coverage upon termination of an employee?

Follow up on complaints to ensure mistreatment stops along with harassment

12/24/2008

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act protects employees from sexual harassment by co-workers. But what happens if management stops the harassment but the co-workers find other ways to make life miserable for their victims? It’s HR’s responsibility to make sure a victim of sexual harassment isn’t targeted for other mistreatment …

Track whom you discipline to avoid litigation

12/24/2008

Employees who are fired after breaking work rules often allege that they were targeted because of some protected characteristic like gender, age, race or ethnicity. The best way to counter such claims is to know beforehand whether your organization is being tougher on some employees who belong to a protected class while letting others slide.

Professor accused of swiping entire program

12/24/2008

New England College has filed suit against poetry professor Anne Marie Macari, alleging she stole its innovative master’s degree program in poetry and set up shop at Drew University in Madison.

Trenton power broker convicted of bribery and pension fraud

12/24/2008

Former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, once one of New Jersey’s most powerful politicians, was convicted of bribery and pension fraud for taking state jobs for which he did no work and steering state business to cronies in return.

Can we cut the pay of a lousy employee?

12/24/2008

Q. We conduct yearly performance evaluations, during which we review whether employees have met expectations. If an employee fails to meet those expectations, can we legally decrease the employee’s salary?

How can we protect ourselves? We’re worried aging employee will hurt himself

12/24/2008

Q. One of our employees is over age 70 and has recently had memory problems and a car wreck. What (if anything) can we do to protect ourselves from potential workers’ comp claims should he injure himself?

When does ‘I quit’ mean ‘Help, I’m disabled’?

12/18/2008

If you know an employee is suffering from depression, don’t be so quick to accept his or her hasty resignation, a new court ruling shows. Instead, you may need to identify this person as “disabled” under the ADA and, therefore, engage in an interactive process to find a work accommodation.