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HR Management

Employee handbooks: Craft with care to secure ‘at-will’ policy

04/01/2003
THE LAW. While law doesn’t directly regulate employee handbooks, they are extremely important legal tools. A handbook documents your policies, builds trust …

Set Policy, Check State Law for ‘Snow Day’ Pay

04/01/2003

Q. An ice storm recently knocked out power in 87 percent of the city. Our company had no power from Sunday until Wednesday. Some hourly employees showed up to work Monday because they live in surrounding counties and didn’t know about the outage. Are we obligated to pay those who showed up but were unable to work? —D.K., Kentucky

Safeguard your health data: HIPAA rules kick in April 14

03/01/2003
Reminder: If your company sponsors an employee benefit plan, it likely has to comply with new privacy standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s …

Guard HR records, the No. 1 source of identity theft

03/01/2003
In the past, thieves stole a person’s identity mostly by snatching a wallet, intercepting mail or digging through garbage to find identifying data. Not anymore. Now, …

No need to reverify expired driver’s license

03/01/2003

Q. I was interested in your recent article discussing reverifying employees’ I-9 documents when they expire. Does this mean that if a worker shows a driver’s license as verification, we need to ask for the worker’s new number and recheck the information when the license expires? —H.F., Florida

Lower-level bias can illegally taint firing decision

03/01/2003
When it comes to discrimination affecting your company’s hiring and firing decisions, what you don’t know can hurt you. That’s why it’s important to reiterate …

Fast fix to FLSA error can save you, but ‘correction window’ closes fast

03/01/2003
If you screw up on a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) pay issue, don’t count on the “window of corrections” to save you. Sure, this Labor Department rule allows you to …

Your safety rules outweigh employee ‘personal appearance’ rights.

03/01/2003
Company dress codes will withstand any legal challenge if they’re gender-neutral and involve a legitimate business reason. Recent example: A county prohibited …

Job-bias claims in 2002 saw biggest one-year jump in decade

03/01/2003
Here’s one more reason to crank up your anti-discrimination training: Job-discrimination complaints filed in 2002 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)jumped …

Monitor hiring process for subtle ‘name discrimination’

02/01/2003
Remind managers that it’s illegal to make hiring decisions based on a person’s race or ethnicity, even if that race is assumed because of the applicant’s name. A high-profile …