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Q&A

Must we pay out unused vacation days when we fire employees or they quit?

06/01/2009

Q. Is an employer required to pay workers for their unused vacation days when they resign or are terminated?

Must we accommodate Sunday as ‘family time’?

05/27/2009

Q. Every summer, we hire youth lifeguards for our municipal pool. We hold training on Sunday evenings. A couple of applicants said they can’t attend that time for “religious reasons.” It’s not a conflict with a religious activity—only family time. If we deny them the job, are there any religious discrimination implications?

How long should we retain employee files?

05/27/2009

Q. How long after employees have left should we retain their files? And if we shred the files, do we have to keep a record of employment date, termination date and any other information?

Payroll pain: Can we ask staff to work for no pay?

05/27/2009

Q. We are having trouble making payroll and have asked our employees to give up pay for 20 hours per month while they work their regular schedules. Can we do this? Or should we just cut their salaries or hourly wages to make up the difference?

When must we pay for travel time?

05/27/2009

Q. Some of our employees travel out of the country on business. We provide a per diem amount for meals, etc. Is there any requirement regarding when we must start the per diem clock ticking? For example, if someone leaves on a trip Friday afternoon and returns Monday morning, do we have to pay for four full days?

What’s enough ‘consideration’ in a noncompete?

05/27/2009

Q. I understand that “consideration” is required for noncompete agreements in North Carolina, and that, for existing employees, continued employment is not valid consideration. How much must a company pay to have sufficient consideration?

How can we prevent co-worker harassment from escalating into violence?

05/27/2009

Q. A co-worker is harassing one of our employees, and we are concerned it may get violent. What can we do about this?

Can a lazy worker collect unemployment?

05/27/2009

Q. We have an employee who does not work very hard and her production is marginal. If we terminate the employee, will she be able to collect unemployment compensation?

How can we terminate a morale buster who is in ill health?

05/27/2009

Q. We have an employee who was out six months with a heart condition. He has had performance problems on and off since then. Now we face a morale issue because he constantly talks about his illness, and his co-workers feel he isn’t performing. If we terminate him, what is the best approach?

Are we allowed to cut full-time employees’ hours to meet budget requirements?

05/27/2009

Q. Can we legally reduce the hours of full-time employees in one of our divisions because it needs to cut overhead?