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How to cope with seriously ill employees

04/01/2006
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Employee accessing child porn: Just saying ‘Stop’ isn’t enough

03/01/2006

When it comes to what your employees do on the Internet, "Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil" is a bad policy. If you know someone is using company assets and company time to engage in illegal activity, you may be obligated to report the activity to the appropriate authorities …

Put yourself in employees’ shoes to decide if they’re disabled

03/01/2006

Some ailments obviously rise to the level of "disability" under the ADA. Others are more marginal. To help you make that decision, try to look at life from that employee’s point of view. It’s a common trial tactic used by plaintiffs’ lawyers to help sway juries in ADA cases …

Medication may limit employees’ FMLA reinstatement rights

03/01/2006

What happens if an employee tries to return to work after FMLA leave but isn’t quite recovered? In that case, you can turn the employee away if he or she can’t perform the job’s essential functions. That scenario often plays out when the returning employee’s job involves operating machinery or driving and the person must take medication …

Fighting a unionization effort: do’s and don’ts

03/01/2006

Union membership has fallen dramatically in recent decades, but the labor movement is far from dead. The biggest change: In 2005, the breakaway "Change to Win" movement seized control over one-third of the powerful AFL-CIO’s unions. Change to Win lured the unions away by promising to shift the focus from political activism to organizing as many U.S. employers as possible. Is your business next? …

Beware of a growing risk: harassment by customers

03/01/2006

Too many employers think harassment is a problem only when it’s an employee-on-employee thing. Recent court rulings prove that you can be held liable even when outsiders harass your employees. Taking action may cost you a customer, but courts say defending employees must come first …

Plan Ahead for Take-the-Kids-to-Work Day: April 27

03/01/2006

Annually, the fourth Thursday in April (April 27 this year) is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, hosted by the Ms. Foundation for Women. To head off requests and confusion about whether/when the kids can come, establish some ground rules …

EEOC Targeting Cases of Years-Old Discrimination

02/01/2006

Don’t think that an employee who quietly suffers name-calling for years can’t sue. Courts and the EEOC won’t be swayed by your argument that "he put up with it for 20 years, so how bad could it have been?" …

Beware false promises in handbooks; explain ‘what,’ not ‘why’

02/01/2006

Just the facts, ma’am. Your employee handbooks should clearly state your organization’s rules and benefits without including any excess or superfluous language. If you embellish the document with needless explanations, you may end up eating your words …

Use-It-or-Lose-It Sick Leave Pushes Absence Costs Higher

02/01/2006

Employers’ costs for last-minute no-show employees continue to climb. A recent CCH survey found that the average per-employee cost of unscheduled absences rose to $660 per employee in 2005, up from $610 in 2004 …