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Q&A

Is it legal to pay just a partial day’s pay for employees who work less than a full shift?

12/09/2009

Q. We scheduled an hourly employee to work a full day, but he worked only part of the day because we didn’t have enough for him to do. With the slowdown in our business, we expect this will be happening with this and other employees more frequently.Do we have to pay hourly employees for a full day of work or just the actual number of hours worked?

Can we prohibit employees from receiving private packages at work?

12/09/2009

Q. Over the holidays, many of our employees received packages at the office. We are worried that this might be a disruption. Should we ban employees from receiving personal packages at work?

What are the pros and cons of doing Google searches on job applicants?

12/08/2009

Q. Currently, we don’t do any background investigations on job applicants. I’m considering instituting an informal background-screening program, whereby my HR director would conduct a Google search for every job applicant, in addition to looking at any Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace pages. I can’t imagine there’s any legal risk in researching information that is already publicly available on the Internet, right?

Are there alternatives to noncompete agreements?

12/08/2009

Q. I have certain employees that I don’t want leaving my business to work for a competitor. I am leery about using a noncompetition agreement because I know that courts can be hostile toward them. I understand they can cost a lot of money in legal fees to enforce. Are there any alternatives for me to consider?

What are the new mandatory EEO postings?

12/08/2009

Q. I know that there have been some recently enacted changes to federal employment laws (the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the ADA Amendments Act, for example). How do these changes affect the required EEO postings for my business?

What should we do about gifts from vendors?

12/08/2009

Q. Sometimes our vendors provide modest gifts for our employees. How should we handle these?

Can worker ‘plead the Fifth’ in an HR investigation?

12/07/2009
Q. Two employees are refusing to participate in an internal workplace investigation. Can we discipline them for insubordination?

Can we cap how much vacation can accrue?

12/04/2009

Q. Our vacation policy caps the amount of vacation employees can earn at 250 hours. Employees can’t earn any more until the vacation balance falls below that level. Does this violate California’s law on accruing vacation?

Can an employee collect workers’ comp and then sue us for more?

12/04/2009

Q. One of our employees suffered a job-related injury. Now she’s trying to sue us in court for damages following mediation in which she settled her workers’ compensation petition by accepting permanent total disability (PTD) benefits. Can she do that?

Can we make employees or applicants pay for medical examinations?

12/04/2009

Q. Under what circumstances, if any, can an employer require an applicant or employee to pay for his or her own medical or physical examination?