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HR Management

Are we liable for accidents caused by cell phone use in company vehicles?

12/31/2008

Q. If our employee has an accident while talking on a cell phone in a company car, is the company liable to the injured party?

Can handbooks destroy at-will employment?

12/31/2008

Q. Our company has an employee handbook. One of our employees has stated that this creates an employment contract and that he is no longer an at-will employee. Is this correct?

Follow up on complaints to ensure mistreatment stops along with harassment

12/24/2008

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act protects employees from sexual harassment by co-workers. But what happens if management stops the harassment but the co-workers find other ways to make life miserable for their victims? It’s HR’s responsibility to make sure a victim of sexual harassment isn’t targeted for other mistreatment …

Track whom you discipline to avoid litigation

12/24/2008

Employees who are fired after breaking work rules often allege that they were targeted because of some protected characteristic like gender, age, race or ethnicity. The best way to counter such claims is to know beforehand whether your organization is being tougher on some employees who belong to a protected class while letting others slide.

Dress, grooming policies should serve bona fide business need

12/24/2008
Employers may generally impose rules requiring employees to adhere to reasonable workplace appearance, grooming and dress standards. But as straightforward as the issue seems to be, grooming standards can create problems for employers.

BlackBerry time: When must you pay for employees’ off-duty PDA hours?

12/24/2008

Hand-held devices, such as BlackBerrys, Trios, iPhones, etc., make it easy for workers to check e-mail and do work at any time of day. And your nonexempt, hourly workers may demand to be paid for that screen-time. So, when must your organization pay nonexempt employees for such off-the-clock work? There’s no clear-cut answer.

Legal limbo or law of the land? The ‘new’ no-match rule from DHS

12/24/2008

In 2007, a U.S. District Court judge in California had enjoined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from enforcing new rules that changed the language of the no-match letters issued by the Social Security Administration and the requirements for how employers must respond to the letters. DHS announced that its final no-match rule was taking effect Oct. 28, 2008.

Can we make staff provide emergency contact info?

12/24/2008

Q. We’re cleaning up our personnel files and updating emergency contact information. Some employees don’t want to provide their contact information. Is it legal for us to require them to give it to us?

What are the risks of continuing a no-fault attendance policy?

12/24/2008

Q. Our company’s attendance policy calls for issuing a warning when an employee has three absences. Five absences result in a suspension, and seven absences result in termination. Can we continue this policy?

Casino workers take one for the team in Atlantic City

12/24/2008

The Atlantic City Council recently repealed a temporary ban on smoking in the city’s casinos, citing an ailing economy. Not all casino workers are in favor of the change …