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Policies / Handbooks

To beat the union heat, avoid 7 deadly management sins

08/01/2002
Why do some employers manage to operate their company in a union-free environment, while others in the same industry and city have a unionized work force? The reasons fit into …

English-Only Rule Is Legal in Rare Circumstances

08/01/2002

Q. Is it legal for our company to require employees to speak only English at work? —B.K., Idaho

Include temp workers in anti-harassment policy

07/01/2002
Nearly 70 women who worked as temporary on-site telemarketers at a Chicago car dealership filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court, claiming widespread sexual harassment by the dealership’s management. Most of …

You’re free to adjust benefit plan without fear of FMLA suit

07/01/2002
When it merged with another bank, Wells Fargo replaced its traditional employee sick- and vacation-leave policy with a paid-time-off (PTO) program and a short-term disability plan. A PTO policy combines annual …

Don’t stack the deck in arbitration

07/01/2002
Daniel Murray, a full-time union organizer, signed a mandatory arbitration agreement as a condition of employment. The pact said arbitrators would be chosen from a list provided by his employer and …

Eligibility for Holiday Pay Is Your Call

07/01/2002

Q. Is there a law that states the number of hours necessary to be considered full time for being eligible for paid holidays? Our handbook says an employee who works fewer than 40 hours a week is considered part time. An employee who works 34 hours a week wonders if he should be eligible for paid holidays. Our handbook says he’s not. Is that OK? —B.D., Michigan

Avoid Two-Tier Benefit Policy

07/01/2002

Q. We offer all employees two weeks’ paid vacation a year. If an employee chooses a 100-percent, full-commission pay structure, how should we set her pay for vacation? The employee wants to take her annual pay divided by 52 weeks, but we feel that’s unfair to the employees who are on salary plus commission, because their vacation pay is based on their base salary divided by 52 weeks. Is there a correct and legal way to figure this? —R.D., Florida

Be Cautious in Requiring Payment From ‘Short’ Cashier

07/01/2002

Q. Management wants to institute a policy that requires cashiers whose registers are short at night’s end to replace the disputed amount out of their own pockets. Does this violate the law? —B.B., New York

Mean-spirited office pranks carry heavy price

06/01/2002
When a manager at an auto body shop went to the restroom, two fellow employees picked the lock, entered and took a photograph of him while urinating. They distributed the picture …

No need to bend seniority rules to accommodate disabled employees

06/01/2002
Continuing a pattern of narrowing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that, in most cases, employers don’t have to override their seniority system to accommodate …