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Employment Law

City of Morrow loses overtime/Retaliation suit

12/01/2007

Two city police lieutenants sued the city of Morrow, claiming the city’s managers refused to pay them overtime and retaliated against them after they filed suit. According to court documents, a city manager fired one lieutenant and required the other to use annual leave for training time …

MasTec to settle overtime suit

12/01/2007

Technology company MasTec has agreed to settle long-standing overtime suits involving some of its home installation employees. The complaints date back to 2001 and affect current and former employees in 10 states, including Georgia …

Section 409A extends beyond formal deferred comp plans

12/01/2007

The IRS recently issued final regulations for implementation of Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 409A regulates deferred compensation. Deferred compensation benefits traditionally have been viewed as compensation reserved for executives and upper management level employees. But the effects of Section 409A extend much further. Now is the time to familiarize yourself with the regulations …

Don’t ask workers to waive past or future FMLA claims

12/01/2007

A key FMLA regulation says, “Employees cannot waive, nor may employers induce employees to waive, their rights under FMLA.” But does that rule apply to waivers of future FMLA violations as well as when they sign settlement agreements based on past FMLA violations? …

Expect slower phone/E-mail service from EEOC

12/01/2007

With the closing of its national call center in Kansas set for Dec. 19, the EEOC took the unusual step of warning the public that it will be harder to communicate with the agency for at least a few months. The agency called on employers “to be patient” during that time …

Employee leaves in ambulance: How much to disclose?

12/01/2007

A reader of the Forum section of our free HR Weekly e-letter posed this question: “An employee was taken from work by ambulance with chest pain. For privacy reasons, we didn’t give any details to staff. Some were upset they weren’t informed or updated. Did we handle this correctly?” Here’s how some HR professionals replied …

Make it your policy: Mum’s the word on military service

12/01/2007

With more and more citizen-soldiers being called to long tours of duty, being a member of the reserves or the National Guard no longer seems like a part-time position. Inconvenient as it may be, resist the temptation to mention someone’s military service in performance reviews, at bonus time or when considering service members for promotions or raises …

Tell managers: Avoid subjective hiring preferences

12/01/2007

When it comes to hiring and promotions, it’s best to avoid subjectivity in the selection process. Tell managers and supervisors: If they have to rely on hunches, impressions and whether they “feel” one candidate is a better choice than another candidate, they are asking for trouble …

Is employee disabled or not? How to make the ADA call

12/01/2007

It’s happened to most HR specialists—a supervisor calls and says an employee claims he’s disabled so he can’t work the night shift or lift anything heavier than a ream of paper. Plus, the employee wants extra breaks beyond those everyone else gets because his disability tires him easily. How do you respond? …

Investigate—And then explain decision to discipline or not

12/01/2007

Just about every harassment allegation deserves some sort of investigation. After all, that’s the only way to tell what is really happening down in the trenches. But that doesn’t mean each and every accusation should result in discipline or some other tangible action …