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Employment Law

Asking feds’ opinion won’t always erase FLSA penalty

03/01/2007

Have you ever filed a request for an “opinion letter” with the U.S. Labor Department? It’s a handy tool that can help you dodge the penalty bullet if you’re later hit with an FLSA violation …

Defuse bias suits by tracking which staff you discipline

03/01/2007

It’s a good idea to track the age, race, religion, sex or other characteristics of employees you discipline. Being able to see, at a glance, a potentially discriminatory pattern can help you make a midcourse correction …

Throwing the book at a worker: A good lawsuit defense

03/01/2007

When faced with an employee who has committed numerous rule violations, do you pick the most serious one and act on that? If so, you may want to rethink that strategy …

Reacting to harassment complaint: First-Day Action Is Vital

03/01/2007

If you don’t have an action plan in place for responding to sexual harassment complaints, develop one now. Don’t wait until the phone rings or an e-mail arrives detailing sexual wrongdoing. By then, it may be too late …

Check your subcontractor contracts for details of workers’ comp coverage

03/01/2007

If you subcontract work, double-check the contract’s provisions on which party pays for workers’ compensation coverage. If you don’t, you may find your organization on the hook for injuries to the subcontractor’s employees …

How far must you go in Florida to protect employees’ data?

03/01/2007

In the process of recruiting, hiring, firing and just running a business, employers accumulate a large amount of personal data from applicants, employees and business associates. Florida law requires employers to take reasonable steps to safeguard such personal data …

Deciding on promotion? Purge file of prior litigious actions

03/01/2007

When it’s time to decide on promotions, do you send employees’ personnel files over to a supervisor or hiring committee to help make the decisions? Make sure the files don’t contain references to past discrimination claims or investigations. Otherwise, you could be inviting a passed-over candidate to sue for retaliation …

Using independent contractors? Check your workers’ comp policy for legal time bombs

03/01/2007

If your organization routinely hires independent contractors, be aware that the language in your workers’ compensation insurance contracts could contain legal problems …

Be aware of different OT rules for first responders

03/01/2007

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires you to pay overtime to hourly employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek. But the rules are different for firefighters: They’re paid OT only after they work a specified number of hours in an entire month …

Surprise, surprise: Employees at even smallest Georgia companies can file harassment lawsuits

03/01/2007

Conventional wisdom holds that if you have fewer than 15 employees, workers can’t sue you for sexual harassment in Georgia. Well, conventional wisdom is wrong …