09/01/2001
Before you pile extra work on employees without paying overtime, make sure you've correctly classified your workers. A California jury recently ordered Farmers Insurance Exchange to pay overtime to 2,400 ...
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09/01/2001
Look into turning your back-office duties over to a professional employer organization (PEO). New trends and fresh players have heightened competition among PEOs, which serve as a "co-employer" and handle recruiting, ...
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09/01/2001
When Congress reconvenes, one of the hottest issues will be whether to add new teeth to a five-year-old federal mental-health parity law. Under the law, companies offering mental health coverage ...
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09/01/2001
Q. Our employees punch a time clock and then go to job sites. Sometimes they don't take a lunch break. But when they do, they're unable to clock out and back in, so there's no time record. Can a manager adjust the timecard by marking through the daily total and deducting the lunch time? –A.P., Virginia
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09/01/2001
Q. We have an add-on to wages of $100 if an employee who's not scheduled to work gets called in within 72 hours. The employee gets paid for the hours worked at his normal wages, with time and a half if it adds up to overtime. The $100 is then added for the hours worked, and taxes are calculated on these earnings as usual. Is this a legal way of rewarding employees for coming in on short notice? –J.S., Oklahoma
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09/01/2001
Q. Our company manual doesn't address compensatory time off, but we have offered certain exempt managers an hour of comp time for every hour of overtime worked. Do we have to pay them for accrued comp time when we terminate them? In the past, we've paid comp time to some and not to others. Can we negotiate our own terms with each employee? —E.B., Oregon
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08/01/2001
While Minnie Hatchett was on a business trip, a hotel skylight crashed down on her head. As a result of her injuries, she could perform routine work, such as answering phones ...
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08/01/2001
Nancy Kroh successfully sued for gender discrimination, claiming her male colleagues were treated more favorably. But on appeal, the court tossed the award out. The com-pany convinced the appeals court that ...
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08/01/2001
Lynn Heaser blamed the air quality in her office at Toro for her health problems, which were diagnosed as everything from allergies to chemical sensitivities. She asked to work from ...
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08/01/2001
Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power occasionally suspended salaried employees without pay, and now it may have to pony up overtime for groups of employees. The ...
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08/01/2001
If you're not already covering prescription contraceptives with your health plan, there's new pressure to do so. For the first time, a federal court has ruled that excluding ...
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08/01/2001
If you're not testing employees for drugs yet, some of your best excuses are going up in smoke. New testing devices are cheaper and less invasive than urine tests. Example: Products ...
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08/01/2001
Q. I run a small advertising office. A college student has asked to join our staff for the summer. She proposed to work every day for a couple months at no cost. It would be great to get some free help. Is there anything wrong with hiring her? —G.I., Maryland
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07/01/2001
Linda Cooper operated a locomotive, but when her personal problems pushed her into depression, she was forced to take a series of leaves of absences. Eventually, Cooper's doctor cleared her ...
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07/01/2001
If you're thinking about extending benefits to employees' domestic partners, be prepared to defend any limits. When the Chicago school board decided to extend spousal health benefits to domestic partners ...
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