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HR Management

Can we withhold double the cost of unreturned equipment from employee’s final paycheck?

01/03/2014
Q. Our employee handbook states, “If you do not return a piece of property we will withhold from your final paycheck the cost of replacing that piece of property.” One of our employees recently quit on the spot. My boss wants to almost double the actual replacement cost of the item. Can we do this?

Pay for voluntary training during lunch?

01/03/2014
Q. If our organization offers voluntary employee training, which takes place during lunch, do we have to pay employees for the time spent attending training?

A hairy problem: Cut biased grooming rules

01/03/2014
Here’s a warning about general grooming standards and disciplining employees over their hairstyle choices: Make sure you apply the same standards to all employees and don’t end up forbidding members of a particular protected class to wear hairstyles that are OK for other workers.

Gaines’ loss: Over $1 million for whistle-blower violations

01/03/2014
OSHA has ordered Gaines Motor Lines, a Hickory-based freight hauling company, to reinstate three workers and pay $1,070,123 in back pay wages, interest, compensatory and punitive damages to four former employees who warned about safety problems.

Adding an arbitration agreement? Make it retroactive

01/03/2014
Are you considering adding an arbitration agreement to your terms and conditions of employment? If you do, make sure the contract includes a retroactive clause that makes arbitration the remedy for past complaints, too.

Dilbert’s creator talks about the passion

01/03/2014
Cartoonist Scott Adams has written a book that skewers traditional business self-improvement manuals as deftly as Catbert the Evil Director of Human Resources regularly rips Dilbert: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.

The HR I.Q. Test: January ’14

01/02/2014
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Deflecting Cupid’s arrow in an environment shaped by #MeToo

01/01/2014
With Valentine’s Day on the way, now is an excellent time to reexamine sexual harassment policies.

Want to stay out of court? Here are 10 basic rules HR must follow

01/01/2014
While lawsuits may be practically inevitable in today’s litigious society, losing them is not. Use the following 10 rules to prevent the most common employment-related lawsuits—or at least increase your chances of winning them.

How to avoid age bias when talking retirement

12/31/2013

Supervisors and HR walk a legal tightrope when discussing retirement plans with aging workers. If it appears you’re pushing an employee out the door based on his age, you’ll be setting yourself up for an age discrimination lawsuit.