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Employment Law

Answers to your FMLA military family leave questions

03/11/2008
On Jan. 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law the first significant amendment to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. Because of the significant changes to this important and complex statute, we have provided answers below to the most frequently asked questions regarding the changes to the FMLA …

HR legislation in Congress: What’s hot, what’s not?

03/11/2008
Being an election year, it will be harder for Congress to ram through any major legislation. But some important labor and employment bills are still being hotly debated this year. Here are nine of the key bills and their chances for passage, according to a policy update given at yesterday’s SHRM conference.

Brace Yourself! Discrimination Claims Up Sharply

03/11/2008
Discrimination complaints in 2007 saw their largest annual increase since the early 1990s, as the EEOC reported double-digit percentage hikes in almost every kind of discrimination charge. Race discrimination continued to lead the field, but for the first time, retaliation was the second most common complaint. Will the new statistics embolden more employees—and their attorneys—to bring charges against you?

Equal Pay for Older Workers

03/09/2008

HR Law 101: When designing compensation plans, employers should take into consideration whether the pay schedules have a negative impact on older workers. Several pay discrimination cases have reached the Supreme Court in recent years …

Travel time and the FLSA: When must you pay?

03/04/2008
To pay or not to pay for travel time? That question has baffled many an employer. Here’s a concise explanation of how you should handle three different travel scenarios—plus Fair Labor Standards Act definitions of “hours worked.”

Bring back injured employee quickly: A 5-step return-to-work plan

03/04/2008
When an employee is injured on the job, what you do—and when you do it—can determine not only how quickly the employee will return to work but also whether he or she will return at all.

You don’t have to make perfect decisions—Just honest ones

03/01/2008

When it comes to hiring or promotion decisions, courts will rarely meddle when companies make honest decisions—even if those decisions aren’t the best or most rational ones. Unless there’s some other underlying discriminatory reason, judges generally won’t second-guess even boneheaded decisions …

Time records crucial in FMLA eligibility calculation

03/01/2008

As a practical matter, the FMLA requires employers to carefully keep track of all hours each employee works. If the employer’s time records don’t include all time worked, it is up to the employer to prove to the court that the employee didn’t work enough hours to qualify for FMLA leave. With poor records, that may be hard to do …

Disability still your call, even if co-workers ‘Accommodate’

03/01/2008

Sometimes, supervisors are the last to know an employee wants an accommodation for a disability. Instead, the employee may be making her own accommodations by asking co-workers for help. Of course, the help may end up keeping them from doing their own jobs. What should you do when you find out? …

Union contract doesn’t mean automatic claims arbitration

03/01/2008

If your organization operates in a union environment, much of the discipline you impose will be controlled by a collective bargaining agreement. But that doesn’t always mean that you will be able to avoid court battles over discrimination claims …