• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

State official: Don’t fall for corporate services scam

07/07/2008
Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson has warned businesses statewide about a company’s solicitation to complete corporate meeting minutes for a fee. The company, which calls itself State Corporate Compliance, has a sales pitch that implies Texas corporations must regularly file corporate minutes with the secretary of state …

Supreme Court allows retaliation suits under Civil War-Era law

07/07/2008

On May 27, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court further expanded the ability of employees to sue for retaliation—an area of employment law that has exploded in recent years. Specifically, the court held that a federal statute enacted shortly after the Civil War, granting all citizens the right to enter into and enforce contracts (commonly referred to as Section 1981), can be used to bring a claim of employment-related retaliation …

The FMLA and domestic partners

07/07/2008
Q. Several of our company’s employees live with domestic partners. Are these employees entitled to leave under the FMLA? …

Union-Free and eager to stay that way

07/07/2008
Q. Our company has operated union-free for many years. How can we best protect ourselves against future union-organizing activities? …

Balance FMLA and ADA rights to avoid potential trouble

07/07/2008
What happens if an employee who qualifies for FMLA leave also has a qualified disability under the ADA, a disability that could be accommodated with additional time off or a job modification? Before you discharge someone unable to return to her old job after 12 weeks of FMLA leave, consider whether she is disabled and can be accommodated—if she asks …

Make sure employees understand your FMLA calendar

07/07/2008
FMLA regulations provide employers with four options for calculating how much leave employees are entitled to at any given time. But if you don’t select a method and let employees know, the DOL says you must use the one most beneficial to the employee. That may mean doing four calculations every time an employee wants FMLA leave …

Quick discrimination check: Tally pay by protected status

07/07/2008
If you do a quick assessment of whether your organization may be inadvertently discriminating in pay and there seem to be big differences between the groups, it’s probably time to seriously consider doing a full analysis of your pay structure …
 

Worried about leave abuse? You can require regular call-Off

07/07/2008
Employees who have chronic medical conditions that require intermittent FMLA leave sometimes take advantage of alleged flare-ups to go on vacation or otherwise miss work for personal reasons. Discourage that kind of abuse by requiring them to call in daily. If the employee ignores the requirement, you can terminate her for failing to follow company policy …

Warn supervisors: Over-the-Top, irrational behavior may mean personal liability

07/07/2008
Do you have a problem supervisor or manager who acts like a Marine Corps drill sergeant? While it may not be technically illegal to berate and yell at subordinates, abusive bosses sometimes cross a dangerous legal line—the one that marks the boundary of behavior that constitutes intentional infliction of emotional distress …

Relying on law enforcement exemption? Be prepared to show volunteers meet the test

07/07/2008
Government agencies that employ fewer than five people in fire protection or law enforcement aren’t required to pay those employees overtime. A common problem is that many small public agencies rely on volunteers to perform firefighting and law enforcement duties. If that’s true at your agency, make absolutely sure those “volunteers” meet the volunteer test …