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Hiring

Don’t punish employees for wrong drug-Test hunch

08/01/2005

Q. We suspected an employee was using drugs, so we sent him to be tested. We told him he couldn’t work until the test came back in two days. The results were negative. What financial responsibility do we have? Do we owe him lost wages for those two days? —L.B., North Carolina

Don’t base hiring decisions on applicants’ childbirth plans

07/01/2005
Issue: Who qualifies for protection under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)?
Risk: Many supervisors mistakenly believe that women must be pregnant to be covered under PDA. Not true.
…

Can you (and should you) refuse to hire smokers? Know the law

07/01/2005
Some of your employees may be a month into their New Year’s resolution to quit smoking. But what if you, as an organization, wanted to kick the habit in a different way—by refusing to hire employees that smoke?

Don’t ‘oversell’ the job; oral promises can bind you

07/01/2005
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Pregnancy-bias law covers even nonpregnant women

07/01/2005
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Some manager socializing could spark bias lawsuits

07/01/2005
Issue: Supervisors may feel more comfortable with employees from one gender or the other.
Risk: If they allow those relationships to affect their employment decisions, supervisors could run afoul of …

Maintain ties with laid-off employees

07/01/2005
Don’t just throw those fish back in the water, keep them on a line with smart moves. Examples: A financial firm created a tuition fund for laid-off workers, hoping they would …

Scrutinize resumes that cite ‘dead’ companies

07/01/2005

What if you’re seriously considering an applicant, but a good chunk of his or her past experience was at an employer that’s now defunct? The dot-com bust of the late ’90s …

EEOC following up on promise to crack down on Hispanic bias

07/01/2005
The EEOC announced in 2003 that it would work to counteract workplace discrimination against Hispanic employees, and the agency is making good on its promise.
EEOC chief Cari Dominquez, who …

Find qualified disabled applicants with DOL’s online network

07/01/2005
The U.S. Labor Department launched a campaign to build awareness of its Employer Assistance & Recruiting Network (EARN), which matches skilled disabled employees with private-sector job openings. The site, www.earnworks.com, has …