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Policies / Handbooks

Prevent your employee handbook from becoming a binding contract: 2 easy steps

01/15/2014
A few simple mistakes in your employee handbook can turn it into a binding legal contract and destroy your right to terminate em­­ployees at-will. Here’s how to avoid that:

Misconduct caught on video: Must we show the employee the proof?

01/10/2014
Q. A client took video of one of our employees talking on the phone and swerving all over the road when driving a group of children in the course of her job. We suspended the employee. Now the employee is demanding to see the video. Must we let her?

Make sure your pay policies properly address meal breaks

01/08/2014
Paying employees for break time—or not paying them—is one of the trickiest aspects of wage-and-hour law compliance. Know your obligations!

Age Discrimination: ADEA/OWBPA

01/05/2014

HR Law 101: Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, employers with 20 or more workers can’t engage in personnel practices that discriminate against individuals age 40 and older. Most age discrimination cases grow out of wrongful discharge and mandatory retirement policies, but they can involve any adverse change in working conditions …

Possible porn: Can we search computers?

01/03/2014
Q. An employee recently complained about re­ceiving inappropriate email messages and links to porno­graphic websites from some of her co-workers. We would like to review the messages to figure out exactly how large a problem we face. Can we do this?

Can we withhold double the cost of unreturned equipment from employee’s final paycheck?

01/03/2014
Q. Our employee handbook states, “If you do not return a piece of property we will withhold from your final paycheck the cost of replacing that piece of property.” One of our employees recently quit on the spot. My boss wants to almost double the actual replacement cost of the item. Can we do this?

A hairy problem: Cut biased grooming rules

01/03/2014
Here’s a warning about general grooming standards and disciplining employees over their hairstyle choices: Make sure you apply the same standards to all employees and don’t end up forbidding members of a particular protected class to wear hairstyles that are OK for other workers.

Adding an arbitration agreement? Make it retroactive

01/03/2014
Are you considering adding an arbitration agreement to your terms and conditions of employment? If you do, make sure the contract includes a retroactive clause that makes arbitration the remedy for past complaints, too.

Deflecting Cupid’s arrow in an environment shaped by #MeToo

01/01/2014
With Valentine’s Day on the way, now is an excellent time to reexamine sexual harassment policies.

Want to stay out of court? Here are 10 basic rules HR must follow

01/01/2014
While lawsuits may be practically inevitable in today’s litigious society, losing them is not. Use the following 10 rules to prevent the most common employment-related lawsuits—or at least increase your chances of winning them.