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Employment Law

Soda machine attacker wins workers’ comp

07/17/2009

Employees typically earn workers’ compensation for injuries incurred “in the course of work.” In Illinois, it seems, attacking the company vending machine is all in a day’s work. Vending-machine vigilantes are also covered in Oregon …

Chronic fatigue syndrome or just too pooped to work?

07/17/2009

If you have an employee who seems constantly exhausted, take note: He or she may suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). And under the newly revised Americans with Disabilities Act, that person could be deemed “disabled” and entitled to reasonable work accommodations.

Can we open employees’ ‘confidential’ mail?

07/17/2009

Q. Can we legally open all mail delivered to employees at the office? What if it is stamped “confidential,” can we still open it? This is getting to be a problem because our mailroom opens all mail automatically.

Can you ask applicants if they have relatives on staff?

07/17/2009

Q. On our applications, can we include a question that asks if applicants are related to any current employees?

Disability payments and the FMLA

07/17/2009

Q. Can we require an employee who is out on FMLA leave to use accrued paid time off if he or she is receiving disability payments?

Reducing salaries and hours: How to document?

07/17/2009

Q. We’ve reduced the salaries of our exempt employees and told them to work only 36 hours each week. Still, however, many of those employees continue to work 40 or more hours per week. Exempt employees feel uncomfortable documenting 36 hours, when, in actuality, they’ve worked many more hours than that. Should we ask exempt employees to document hours that are not necessarily true?

Does newly married worker need new W-4, I-9?

07/17/2009

Q. When an employee gets married, do we need a new W-4 to show her new name? What about a new I-9?

Instant response to complaint cuts harassment risk

07/17/2009

A female Dallas police officer complained that a co-worker touched her and called her “darling.” A quick internal investigation led to a warning and counseling for the co-worker. It never happened again. Still, the officer sued for sexual harassment …

DOL pays $500 million to uranium plant victims

07/16/2009

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., processed more than one million tons of uranium during the Cold War, often without adequate safeguards for employees. Now the U.S. Department of Labor has paid out more than $500 million in benefits to plant employees and their survivors.

No haircut, no job: Was it discrimination?

07/15/2009

A jury will decide whether Wackenhut Inc. discriminated against Lord Osunfarian Xodus when the security firm turned him down for a security guard position. Xodus, a Chicagoan who practices Rastafari, claimed he lost out on the job after he refused to cut his dreadlocks for religious reasons.