HR Management

What legal issues should we weigh before allowing employees to bring their pets to work

06/09/2010

Q. We run a pretty laid-back office and are considering allowing employees to bring their pets to work. Anything we should be thinking about?

Fed contractors must post labor rights notice starting June 21

06/08/2010

In two weeks, you must begin posting a new notice of employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act if you’re a government contractor doing $100,000 or more in business with the federal government or a subcontractor with contracts worth more than $10,000.

How accessible are your electronic HR files?

06/08/2010

With 70% of all corporate records now stored electronically, HR must make sure their organizations’ systems are set up to retrieve critical information on demand. That’s essential if your organization is sued. Long delays in providing evidence can lead to needless litigation costs—and crush your chances in court.

How to break down the HR-supervisor wall

06/07/2010

Friction often exists between HR and supervisors because those front-line bosses don’t fully understand your HR role … and they may hold certain stereotypes about your department. Advice: Set the stage for HR-management collaboration with an “HR for managers” meeting. Explain how key HR functions practically benefit managers and their departments.

Don’t write a zero-tolerance violence policy unless you plan to apply it every time

06/07/2010

Many employers have adopted so-called zero-tolerance rules prohibiting any kind of violence at work. But be careful how you enforce the rule. If you ever make exceptions, you’ll be asking for a lawsuit. Instead, terminate violent employees promptly, as soon as you verify what happened.

New federal safety program starting in June increases enforcement, fines on repeat offenders

06/04/2010

If your organization has been hit with OSHA safety violations in the past, consider yourself on double-secret probation. The agency’s new Severe Violator Enforcement Program starting in June will call for “a more intense examination” of work sites where previous safety violations have been found.

Updating your policy, but not your handbook

06/03/2010

Q. Our employee handbook says that employees are paid for 40 hours per week as long as they put in at least 38 hours. We recently told employees that, from now on, we pay only for actual hours worked. Do we have to change the handbook, too?

Failing to investigate nebulous charges isn’t a federal case–and it’s not retaliation

06/02/2010

Employees who complain about alleged discrimination are protected from retaliation for doing so. In order for the employee to win a lawsuit, the retaliatory act must be adverse—that is, it must be an act that affects the employee in more than an inconsequential way. In a recent case, an employee claimed that by merely ignoring her complaint, her employer was retaliating. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals nixed that idea.

Know the one key limit on at-will employment

06/02/2010

Because Texas is an “at-will” state, employers are generally free to fire employees for any reason or no reason. Of course, firing employees under circumstances that would be illegal under any specific employment law won’t fly. But other than that, there is only one other discharge reason that puts employees outside at-will employment: Employers can’t fire employees for refusing to perform an illegal act.

Keep careful records so you can show why you punished similar behavior differently

06/01/2010

Employers sometimes think that if they have a broad workplace rule in place, they have to punish everyone who breaks that rule exactly the same way. That’s not necessarily true. The key is to make sure you can document why one employee deserved a more severe punishment than another. Two cases illustrate how to go about individualizing punishment: