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

Employment Law

Notify ‘key employee’ right away if denying reinstatement to job

10/01/2004
Employees who take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are usually guaranteed reinstatement to their jobs. But one key exception exists: You can designate a class of highly …

Employees can’t claim retaliation if they’re not FMLA-eligible

10/01/2004
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects employees against retaliation for taking FMLA leave. But a recent court decision makes clear that employees retain these rights only if they’re actually …

Don’t let a scheduling conflict prompt reservists’ discipline, firing

10/01/2004
Run supervisors through some basic training on strict
military-leave law. Why? More than 168,000 National Guard and reservists are currently on active duty and Congress is considering changes that would …

Severance pacts can’t ask employees to waive their rights to EEOC claim

10/01/2004
Make sure your severance agreements don’t require employees to waive their rights to file a discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Why? As opposed to a …

Learn from the big dog’s mistake; check applicants’ crime records

10/01/2004
America’s largest employer, Wal-Mart, recently announced that it will begin running criminal background checks on job candidates.
The decision comes on the heels of two incidents in which employees with …

Supreme Court starts new term; age-bias case tops slim HR agenda

10/01/2004
The U.S. Supreme Court opens its new session Oct. 4, but so far, employment issues are taking a back seat to cases ranging from juvenile executions to wine trading. Expect the …

Common small-company confusion: believing FMLA applies to them

10/01/2004
Small employers may be hurting their productivity by offering more generous family-and-medical leave benefits than legally required.
That’s the message of a new National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) study, …

How must you accommodate people with epilepsy?

10/01/2004
About 2.3 million Americans have some form of epilepsy, which causes occasional seizures.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just published a new fact sheet that explains whether epilepsy is considered …

Beware growing risk of minorities’ sex harassment claims

10/01/2004
Heads up: African-American, Asian and Hispanic women are more likely to file sexual harassment charges than in the past, according to a National Partnership for Women & Families study of data …

Centralize job references to minimize exposure

10/01/2004

Q. Concerning writing reference letters, we have a few supervisors who think it’s OK to write them only for “good” employees. But our policy says supervisors can’t issue reference letters for any current or former employee. I’m having a hard time finding a reason that justifies our policy. Help! —P.T., South Dakota