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HR Management

Don’t set automatic deadline for workers returning from disability leave.

10/01/2001
Make sure your medical leave policy doesn’t automatically terminate employees after a certain number of days. Blood Systems Inc. recently agreed to pay 23 employees a total of $650,000 after the …

Be vigilant against bias in wake of terrorist attacks

10/01/2001
Following the attacks on Sept. 11, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is urging employers to guard against harassment of Arab-American and Muslim workers.
It wants companies to:
…

Beware of sick leave policies that allow pay reduction of exempt

10/01/2001
To protect employee exemptions from overtime, make sure your sick leave policy defines which classifications would not be subject to pay deductions. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court said employees …

… and they’re planning to leave

10/01/2001
In a separate survey by Walker Information, only 24 percent of workers say they are committed to their employer and plan to stay for the next two years. The Indiana-based …

You Can Restrict Use of Personal Days

10/01/2001

Q. If a company provides both personal and vacation days for its employees and does not define what a personal day is, can that be used for anything outside of vacation time? —E.H., Utah

Sweeten Deal to Retain Worker After Training

10/01/2001

Q. We just covered the entire cost for an employee to complete nurses’ aide training. We intended to draw up an agreement before the training so that this employee would be available to our business for six months before she could seek other employment, but we failed to discuss the agreement before the training. Can we have her sign such an agreement now? —C.E., Ohio

Save with separate legal services

09/01/2001
More lawyers are offering services a la carte to attract small businesses. Example: An attorney charges separate fees for negotiating a settlement, drafting a legal document, moving paperwork through the legal …

Mental health benefits: Know federal, state parity laws

09/01/2001
When Congress reconvenes, one of the hottest issues will be whether to add new teeth to a five-year-old federal mental-health parity law. Under the law, companies offering mental health coverage …

Get Certification Before Granting FMLA Leave

09/01/2001

Q. An employee told her supervisor that she needed surgery. We approved time off under the FMLA with the understanding that she would provide certification after the leave began. We later discovered that this “necessary” procedure was liposuction. Can we revoke approval of medical leave under FMLA and convert sick hours used to vacation hours instead? Can we fire her based on inappropriate use of the FMLA? —T.S., Florida

Don’t let blabbing employees hide their identity on the Internet

09/01/2001
Imagine that an employee posts confidential information about your company on an Internet message board. What do you do? One company sued the message-board site to learn the identity of the …