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Policies / Handbooks

FMLA Won’t Cover Tardiness

05/01/2002

Q. Some of our employees routinely ask to use FMLA when they are five, 10 or 15 minutes late. It creates a scheduling nightmare and hurts morale. Does FMLA cover employees who are consistently tardy for work? —M.P., Florida

Don’t use nepotism policy as smoke screen for bias

04/01/2002
Paul Yancey Sr. began working for the railroad in the 1960s and rose to the position of general maintenance foreman. In 1993, his son, Paul Jr., started working there, too. But …

Quality checks of phone calls don’t give you license to eavesdrop

04/01/2002
An administrative sales assistant at an insurance agency quit after learning that her personal phone calls were being monitored and recorded by her company through a hidden tape recorder. …

Firing harassers is OK, even without formal company policy

04/01/2002
Machine operator Louvenia Hall complained that a co-worker repeatedly harassed her. When the company investigated, it found that Hall had returned the favor by harassing him, too. The company’s solution: Fire …

Pregnancy bias: New census trends heighten your risk

04/01/2002
If you’ve only semiunderstood the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) until now, it’s time to brush up. Reason: The 24-year-old law is spawning its greatest number of claims yet. (See chart below.) …

Banning Unsolicited Résumés

04/01/2002

Q. Our company doesn’t want to consider unsolicited résumés as applicants. We are trying to come up with a legally sound definition for “applicant” so we can write an official policy. —H.D., Wisconsin

A few brief incidents can create ‘pervasive’ harassment

03/01/2002
Three Hispanic men were hired as a house-painting crew for a contractor. Typically, the crew checked into the company’s office for only two minutes to 15 minutes a day, once in …

Definition of ‘work environment’ just got wider–so did your risk

03/01/2002
During a layover in Rome, two Delta flight attendants went shopping. Afterward, the male employee invited his female co-worker to his hotel room to sample a new wine. After drinking a …

Reject accommodation requests that harm business relationships

03/01/2002
Elizabeth Anderson, an office worker for a shipping firm, regularly ended her conversations and written communications with customers with the words, “Have a blessed day.” After her employer got a …

Ease strict noncompete pacts or risk wrongful discharge claim

03/01/2002
As part of a merger, Aetna U.S. Healthcare required employees to sign an agreement barring them from working for a competitor in the same state for two years or any competitor …