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HR Management

React quickly to disability accommodation requests

12/01/2005
Issue: The EEOC is targeting employers who drag their heels on employees’ disability accommodation requests.
Risk: Courts could see your delay tactics as illegal “constructive discharge” of disabled employees…

Budget for higher postal rates in ’06

12/01/2005
If you mail HR-related info to applicants and employees, budget higher costs in 2006. The Postal Rate Commission last month approved a 2-cent increase in first-class stamps, pushing them up to …

Request certification at start of each FMLA year

12/01/2005
A new Labor Department opinion letter makes clear that you can require employees to provide new medical certification, not just recertification, for their first FMLA absences in a new “FMLA year.” …

More employers are telling sick workers to stay home

12/01/2005
The problem of presenteeism, when employees come to work even though they’re sick, is an increasing concern for U.S. employers, according to a new CCH survey. Nearly half (48 percent) of …

Sharpen your recruiting with new matchmaker sites

12/01/2005
Issue: Some new job boards this year take their cues from dating sites, trying to match employers with applicants.
Benefit/risk: Such sites can eliminate unqualified applicants, but they’re fishing in …

Obtain OK to share background-Check info with clients

12/01/2005

Q. Our company routinely runs background checks on all people to whom we offer positions. Can we legally disclose an employee’s background information to a customer who requests it? (The employee is working on the customer’s job site.) —L.B., North Carolina

Secure one-time consent for all employee credit checks

12/01/2005
Issue: Must you seek permission each time you want to review an employees’ credit record?
Benefit: As a new court ruling shows, the answer is ‘no;’ you can obtain one …

Set separate notice rules for FMLA and regular absences

12/01/2005
Your organization can (and should) establish clear rules for whom employees should contact if they need time off. Those rules can specify one contact person …

Can you require employees to speak English around customers?

12/01/2005

A narrowly tailored English-only policy that is designed to serve legitimate business needs is not discriminatory, says the EEOC. To be valid, the policy should spell out when English is required and let employees converse in any other language at all other times …

Keeping confidential info secret: Lessons from the Wal-Mart leak

12/01/2005

Wal-Mart execs were wearing egg on their faces last month, and possibly facing legal action, after news media published an internal memo in which a senior VP suggested "clever" ways to cut benefit costs …