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HR Management

Don’t dock pay for time-Clock mistakes

05/01/2005

Q. We dock employees’ pay by 15 minutes if they don’t punch in or out on their timecards. If this happens more than twice over any 90-day period, we write up the employee. We’ve recently been told that we shouldn’t have such a policy. Is that correct? If so, how can we make sure employees punch in? —K.K., Michigan

Shorter, more frequent breaks reduce on-the-job accidents

05/01/2005
Issue: How to structure break schedules to maximize productivity and safety.
Benefit: Allowing more frequent, but shorter, breaks are smarter than giving longer infrequent ones, new research shows.
Action: …

Take same-race bias complaints seriously

05/01/2005
Don’t allow discrimination to continue simply because the “discriminator” and “discriminatee” are among the same racial minority. The EEOC is warning that it’s seeing more discrimination complaints between people of the …

Previous pregnancy troubles are no reason to refuse hiring, rehiring

05/01/2005
Remind your managers: Contrary to popular belief, female employees don’t need to be pregnant to earn legal protections under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). Even nonpregnant employees can sue.
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Train all supervisory employees how to spot and take complaints

05/01/2005
Don’t think that you can automatically swat away a pesky sexual-harassment suit by saying the complaining employee didn’t follow your complaint procedure to a “T.” Courts may let employees pursue their …

Don’t deduct training costs from ex-Employee’s pay

05/01/2005

Q. As part of our new employees’ noncompete contracts, we’ve started including a clause that requires employees to repay the company (through payroll deduction) for training costs if they quit or are fired within one year. Are we OK legally? —S.M., Kentucky

Make sure the employee is qualified before approving an FMLA request

04/01/2005
Take extra time to review an employee’s eligibility and certification for FMLA leave at the time of the request, not later.
As a new court ruling shows, employers who approve …

Run background checks, even for top-dog positions

04/01/2005
Buyer beware: If you don’t probe deeply into job candidates’ backgrounds, you’re in the minority these days.
In fact, 80 percent of employers polled in a new Society for Human …

Workplace notices: Are your labor-law posters out of date?

04/01/2005
THE LAW. The U.S. Labor Depart-ment and each state government require employers to post certain employment-law information that ex-plains employees’ rights and responsibilities. You also must make sure your federal and …

Warn managers not to hire on ‘gut instinct’ alone

04/01/2005
Issue: Establishing quantifiable criteria for making hiring decisions.
Risk: Applicants have an easier time winning hiring-bias lawsuits if they can point to weaknesses in your stated reasons for hiring.
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