05/21/2013
Employees in the National Guard and Reserve usually serve their two weeks during the summer, but others may be away longer. Here’s what Payroll needs to know to properly handle summer military duty.
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05/01/2013
Disabled employees may be entitled to some time off as an accommodation, but there are limits. If an employee is constantly absent when his disability makes it impossible to work, you may be able to discharge him. That’s because attendance can be an essential function of a job—and constantly missing work may show that the employee can’t perform that essential function.
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04/25/2013
Q. We have an employee who was out on workers’ comp and has recently returned to work part time. (She is still collecting partial workers’ comp benefits.) Can we adjust her vacation and personal leave time to reflect the limited hours she’s working, or is she entitled to the full amount of days?
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04/23/2013
Q. A while ago two of our employees developed a romantic relationship. They are now expecting a baby and both workers put in a request for family leave to bond with their newborn. Are we required to give both workers leave for the birth of their child—even if they are not married?
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04/12/2013
Many employers use perfect-attendance awards as a tool to cure their absenteeism problems. But for both legal and non-legal reasons, these may not be the right carrots. Here’s why:
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04/11/2013
Q. We are thinking about implementing a no-fault attendance policy. We hope it will provide clearer absenteeism rules and make it easier for managers to enforce. Are there any downsides?
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04/05/2013
The irony wasn’t lost on execs at online travel giant Expedia when they learned that most of its employees weren’t taking all of their vacation time. So the Bellevue, Wash.-based organization started paying them to go.
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03/29/2013
Q. We gave eligible employees a “floating holiday” in lieu of having Dec. 31 as a paid holiday. We generally pay employees for all unused vacation, sick and personal time upon termination, but we have no policy regarding an unused floating holiday. Do we have to pay workers for any unused floating holidays upon termination?
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03/20/2013
If an employee is experiencing pregnancy complications, it may not be enough to provide four months of leave under California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave Law. For practical purposes, four months is the minimum leave employers are required to provide. You may owe more time off under the California FEHA, as long as it doesn’t create an undue hardship on your business operations.
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03/20/2013
Employees who are temporarily unable to perform their jobs because of a disability are entitled to reasonable ADA accommodations. You’ll want to think about starting the interactive accommodations process as soon as a potentially disabled employee asks for more than the usual amount of leave.
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01/30/2013
HR Law 101: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 prohibits discrimination on the basis of "pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions." Employers can't deny a woman a job or a promotion merely because she's pregnant or has had an abortion ...
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01/22/2013
California employees now enjoy expanded pregnancy rights after new Fair Employment and Housing Commission regulations took effect Dec. 30, 2012. The regulations bar employers from discriminating against employees for virtually any pregnancy-related condition.
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12/18/2012
Q. Can we give an exempt employee a bonus of extra vacation days in addition to the standard accrued time off outlined in our employee handbook?
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12/12/2012
The Minnesota Parental Leave Act provides up to six weeks of leave for childbirth and recovery or adoption. Employees who take leave are entitled to reinstatement. It also includes a provision for extending parental leave, stating that leave “may not exceed six weeks, unless agreed to by the employer.” Until now, it remained up in the air what should happen to the reinstatement right if the employer agreed to a longer leave.
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12/12/2012
Q. Sometimes, our employees work overtime and we note those hours in an overtime bank so they can take time off later. One of our employees claims this is illegal and that we have to pay him. Is that true?
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