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Q&A

Banning male employees’ long hair is OK

07/01/2005

Q. Can we require male employees’ hair be a certain length, or is that discrimination? Also, can we say male employees can’t have beards? —C.H., Illinois

Deduct Vacation Leave if Sick-Leave Bank Is Empty

06/01/2005

Q. If an employee is out sick but has already used up all her sick-leave hours, can we legally subtract from her vacation time instead? —K.P., Michigan

Promote staff volunteerism, but not for firm’s benefit

06/01/2005

Q. Our CEO just implemented a new employee evaluation goal based on their volunteer work throughout the year. The more they volunteer, the higher the points they receive on their review, ultimately increasing their salary. Can we do this without risk? —T.M., Maine

Don’t require employees to visit a psychologist

06/01/2005

Q. Can we require an employee to receive psychological counseling or treatment if his behavior has become a hindrance to his job performance? —N.M., Kansas

Pay for uniform-Change time if job requires it

06/01/2005

Q. Do we have to pay employees for the time they spend changing into their uniforms before work (and out of their uniforms afterward)? We’re a hospital and our operating-room personnel must change clothes. —E.T., Maryland

Add anti-Nepotism rule to your family of policies

06/01/2005

Q. Some employees have complained anonymously that an employee is receiving preferential treatment because she’s the wife of a manager. How can we defuse this situation? Should I transfer her to another warehouse? —B.B., New York

Don’t deduct training costs from ex-Employee’s pay

05/01/2005

Q. As part of our new employees’ noncompete contracts, we’ve started including a clause that requires employees to repay the company (through payroll deduction) for training costs if they quit or are fired within one year. Are we OK legally? —S.M., Kentucky

‘Reasonable’ Maternity Leave Doesn’t Matter Under FMLA

05/01/2005

Q. Is there a law or reasonable standard regarding how many weeks maternity leave should be? And should we make that a written policy in our employee handbook? Even with FMLA, to which our employees are entitled, we thought maternity leave was either six or eight weeks, depending on type of delivery. —J.F., Pennsylvania

Pay Traveling Employees for Time Actually Worked

05/01/2005

Q. How should we compensate an hourly employee for an out-of-town, two-day (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) seminar? In particular, should we pay for the hours during the overnight hotel stay, since the employee must sleep there to be ready for the next day’s session? —N.G., North Carolina

State law dictates employees’ access to personnel file

05/01/2005

Q. An ex-employee whom we fired is now asking to take some documents from his personnel file. Is he legally allowed to do this? Do we have to give him the information just because he’s asking for it? —L.B., North Carolina