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Employment Law

Health plan summaries required by Sept. 23

04/19/2012
Final regulations for implementing the Affordable Care Act now require all group health plans to provide employees and beneficiaries with an SBC and a uniform glossary of basic health benefit terms by Sept. 23. The summaries had been on hold while regulators drew up the final rules.

Employee leave: When does the FMLA stop, and ADA begin?

04/17/2012
FMLADA! Sometimes employment laws just look all blurry. Where does one law stop and the other law start? One court last month answered this question with a bright-line finding. The ADA doesn’t always have to kick in after FMLA leave …

Make sure employees know how to complain

04/16/2012
One of the only ways to protect your company from hostile work environment lawsuits is to provide a way for employees to complain. Then investigate the allegations.

Punish bosses who don’t report harassment

04/16/2012
Before you can fix a problem like offensive graffiti in the workplace, you have to know it exists. Short of conducting spot inspections, the only way you will know what’s going on away from headquarters and in the trenches is from employee and supervisor complaints.

Beat bias lawsuits with cold, hard facts

04/16/2012
Employers that are prepared to offer cold, hard facts to de­­fend their decisions—even those that may look suspicious at first glance—rarely lose lawsuits. The more objective the business reasons you have for personnel decisions, the better off you are.

Safety trumps bias claim in case of ‘no skirts’ rule

04/16/2012
One of the few times you can overrule an employee’s religious accommodation requests is when safety is involved, as the following case shows.

EEOC defines ‘reasonable factors other than age’ in age discrimination cases

04/12/2012

A few years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court said employers fighting claims of age discrimination carry the burden of proof to show that their alleged discriminatory decisions were actually based on a “reasonable factor other than age,” or RFOA, not discrimination. Last month, the EEOC issued final regulations that clarify—using a nonexhaustive list of “other than age” factors—what would legally qualify as a legitimate RFOA in age-bias cases. This new EEOC Q&A document explains the new rules… 

Must we honor an attorney’s request for our employee’s personnel records?

04/12/2012
Q. We recently received a letter from an attorney representing one of our employees. It requested “all personnel files and records, including all medical ­rec­ords” that we have on this employee. The letter contained an “authorization” that the employee had signed, but which did not specifically name our company. Do we have to provide this information? What if we don’t? And is there any risk to the company if we do provide it?

As union eyes our workforce, what should we do about its request for pay information?

04/12/2012
Q. I run a nonunion construction contracting company. We recently received a letter from a union stating that they believe we are paying substandard wages and benefits. The letter asked us to provide any information we might have to show that they are wrong and that we are paying area standard compensation to our people. Does the union have a right to this information?

Federal computer law doesn’t cover misuse of trade secrets

04/12/2012
The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) doesn’t grant employers any legal recourse if an employee misuses information obtained from company computers, according to a recent Minnesota Federal District Court ruling.