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Animal control officer dogged by prescription revelation

11/01/2007

A Port St. Lucie animal control officer is suing the city after her supervisor wrote a public memo revealing the officer’s use of a prescription drug. The supervisor found legal anti-anxiety pills in the officer’s purse while searching her work truck for a receipt related to a wayward-dog case …

Consider ADA, discrimination, validity issues when using personality tests

11/01/2007

Some employers use personality or psychological tests to screen applicants and employees being considered for jobs or promotions. Proponents say personality tests are an economical way of screening employees. However, critics argue that these tests might not accurately predict an individual’s honesty, integrity or other personality traits. Others say the tests violate the employee’s privacy …

It depends on how you define ‘Overheard’

11/01/2007
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Noncompete agreements and trade secrets

11/01/2007

Q. My company is involved in the biotech industry and regularly develops proprietary information. We currently are working with an executive search firm to find a replacement for a high-level marketing executive position. Management wants to manage the risk of disclosure of confidential information. How restrictive may the potential candidate’s noncompete agreement be, given the company’s special needs to protect trade secrets? …

More employers try to regulate employees’ off-Duty behavior

11/01/2007

To help control significant health care cost increases, many employers are trying to regulate employees’ off-duty behavior when they believe that it creates health risks. Although motivated by legitimate economic concerns, are these employers overstepping the boundaries of individual privacy? …

Noncompete agreements in Indiana: When are they legal?

10/01/2007

Many Indiana employers wisely use noncompete agreements to protect their legitimate business interests in their customer base and trade secrets. But will those agreements stand up in court? While some employers have successfully used noncompetes, others don’t believe they’re worth the paper they’re printed on. Depending on how the noncompete is drafted, either can be true …

Geeks in trench coats? L.I. firm alleges software spying

10/01/2007

CA Inc., a software company in Islandia, has filed a $200 million lawsuit against rival Rocket Software of Newton, MA, alleging Rocket stole computer source codes and other trade secrets from CA and used the information to develop almost identical products …

Reading personal mail at work

10/01/2007

Q. Several employees have complained that they received personal letters via our company’s regular mail system (not e-mail) that had been opened by someone else in our company. Can other employees or supervisors open and read personal mail sent to employees? …

Save hours, employee worry with identity-Theft protection

10/01/2007

More than 10 million people a year fall victim to identity thieves—and some of them work for you. It could take up to 600 hours to undo the damage caused by identity theft. And those hours are usually workday hours. That’s why more organizations are beginning to offer identity-theft protections …

Keeping I-9 forms in separate file: Is it mandatory?

10/01/2007

Q. I’ve read that we shouldn’t keep employees’ I-9s in their personnel files. Is this a suggestion or are there laws that require them to be in separate files? —L.K., Alabama …