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Employment Law

To keep arbitration clause legal, ensure workers’ cost is reasonable

11/01/2001
When SFX bought a New York radio station, it required all workers to sign a binding arbitration clause. Station employee Tracy Christopher later accused the company of gender and pregnancy …

Retaliation protection extends to employee’s family

11/01/2001
Michael Flannery was a pro-union employee at a baking plant where his wife was a supervisor. Soon after Flannery joined in an organizing drive, managers told him that his actions were …

Use peer job reviews to fight rising bias claims

11/01/2001
Adding a peer review element to your performance reviews can help prevent claims that negative evaluations stem from discrimination. More companies are doing it. Twenty-eight percent of companies now have …

High court to tackle immigrant rights, standards for cases

11/01/2001
Nearly half the cases accepted for review so far in the U.S. Supreme Court’s new term are business related, the highest amount in at least nine years, according to the National …

Egg on their faces: Mistakes in paying cooks cost $2.8 million

11/01/2001
Employers who misclassify workers as exempt continue to be hit with big-dollar court awards. In a recent decision, a federal court ordered owners of more than 100 Waffle House restaurants …

Keep unions at bay: Allow few exceptions to no-solicitation policy

11/01/2001
Don’t be so quick to OK fund-raising events at your workplace, allowing too many could endanger your “no solicitation/no distribution” policy and open you up to an accusation of an unfair …

Crisis management: Set smart policy before disaster strikes

11/01/2001
The size of the Sept. 11 attacks magnified the impact that a disaster can have on a workplace, thousands attempting to evacuate …

Temp Employee May Trigger FMLA Rights

11/01/2001

Q. Do employees paid through a temporary agency count toward the 50-employee eligibility number for the Family and Medical Leave Act? —M.S., New Jersey

Take Broad Look for ADA Accommodation

11/01/2001

Q. If we let some employees in a department return to work in a light-duty capacity, can we deny other employees that same option? We need to do this because the department no longer can operate properly with half its staff on medical leave or limited to light duty due to medical conditions. The union contract says that when an employee is eligible for medical leave, six months must pass before we may terminate the employee. —D.W., Illinois

Keep Control Over Comp-Time Accumulation

11/01/2001

Q. We have an exempt supervisor who’s accumulated more than 400 hours of comp time over the past year. It’s almost impossible for her to take 400 hours of comp time and do her job. What is our obligation to pay for this comp time? How can this issue best be resolved? —G.H., California