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Employment Law

Restore returning soldiers to equivalent jobs

09/13/2011

With more veterans returning from active duty service in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, employers are facing more reemployment claims. Under USERRA, service members are entitled to reinstatement as if they never left for deployment. That right includes seniority and allowance for promotions that would have occurred if they had not been deployed.

FMLA leave doesn’t mean you can’t discipline

09/13/2011

The FMLA was enacted to let workers briefly put their careers on hold to tend to pressing personal matters like illness, childbirth and adoption, eldercare and other covered events. It was not designed to enable them to avoid discipline. That’s why the law specifically states that employers don’t have to give returning employees benefits they would not have received if they hadn’t taken FMLA leave.

Following up: The most important, yet most overlooked, part of HR investigations

09/13/2011

When employees complain about alleged discrimination or harassment, smart HR pros make it a point to check back regularly with the employee who voiced the complaint. Then, they document those conversations and address any problems reported by the employee. This simple step carries two important benefits.

HHS bans co-pays for birth control, other services

09/12/2011
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidelines in August that require health insurance plans to cover eight different kinds of women’s preventive serv­ices without charging a co-payment or deductible.

New health plan summaries required in 2012

09/12/2011
The Obama administration proposed new rules in August that require employers and health insurers to give health plan participants a clearer picture of their benefits in plain English. The rules propose a new template for the Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC).

Be prepared to defend retaliation lawsuit if fired worker had ever complained to HR

09/09/2011

Fired employees seeking money (or revenge) often wrack their brains to recall incidents that might justify a sexual harassment or discrimination lawsuit. Suddenly, that casual complaint to HR starts to look like a pretext for their discharge—at least in their minds and their attorneys’. That’s why you should assume that every complaint will become the basis for a lawsuit.

Does long-distance ‘phone care’ qualify for FMLA leave?

09/09/2011
When you grant an employee FMLA leave to care for a sick relative, do you wonder what type of “care” they must really be giving to qualify for time off under the FMLA? A new court ruling defines care as being in physical proximity to the relative. Cutting a lawn in a different time zone doesn’t cut it …

Upstate sporting goods store fined for endangering workers

09/07/2011
It could have given new meaning to the phrase “squeeze play.” Dick’s Sporting Goods has been fined after safety inspectors discovered that managers at a store in Queensbury failed to turn off a trash compactor before forcing employees to climb inside to clear jammed cardboard boxes.

Was accent on no accents at tony Princeton Club?

09/07/2011
New York City’s Princeton Club faces a lawsuit alleging it terminated a long-time employee because of her accent. The employee claims the club fired her after nearly 30 years of service because a new general manager found Hispanic accents “embarrassing.”

Speech isn’t protected if it’s just part of the job

09/07/2011
Some public employees think they are protected from retaliation anytime they speak out. It’s not true.