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Employment Law

Allow applicants to answer negative background-check results

08/01/2003
It’s true that your company could be held liable if it rejects an applicant based on inaccurate data in his background check. But don’t stop doing background …

ADA UPDATE

08/01/2003
A pair of recent Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rulings provide two important lessons for employers: First, have well-written job descriptions for each position …

Don’t change benefits without union’s knowledge.

08/01/2003
For more than 30 years, a company sponsored blood donation drives twice a year. Employees could participate during paid work time. But when the com-pany changed its policy, …

Pay for ‘donning, doffing’ time but not for time spent waiting

08/01/2003
As shown by a few recent high-profile court cases, employees should be paid for time spent at the workplace putting on and taking off required work clothes and equipment …

Fact: Employers win large majority of ADA cases

08/01/2003
The American Bar Association’s latest survey of ADA employment discrimination cases says companies prevail 94.5 percent of the time in court and 78.1 percent of the time in administrative complaints …

Big settlement over dress code will spark scrutiny of uniform law

08/01/2003
Avoid dress-code rules that have no clear business reason or health and safety reason, plus check with your state labor department to see if your state has a pay-for-uniform …

Encouraging diversity: Lessons from Supreme Court’s affirmative-action rulings

08/01/2003
The U.S. Supreme Court’s pivotal rulings in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases this summer provide some direction on how far employers can go …

How to close the door on invasion-of-privacy lawsuits

08/01/2003
Most companies don’t spend a lot of time worrying about their employees’ privacy rights. But they should. Consider this: Privacy lawsuits jumped 300 percent …

Pre-employment testing: Know the legal limits

08/01/2003
THE LAW. Pre-employment tests are an effective tool to discover applicant’s skills or abilities that can’t be gleaned from an application or interview. And …

Different vacation policies are legal if done fairly

08/01/2003

Q. We are rewriting our vacation pay policy. Currently, we have two categories of hourly employees. Can we offer 10 vacation days after two years to some employees and five days for the same period to other employees? Can we offer different benefits to salaried and hourly employees? —S.P., Washington