COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Plan to pick up slack when FMLA leave cuts worker output 05/14/2008   For better or worse, intermittent FMLA leave sometimes has the effect of turning a full-time job into a de facto part-time one. That means an employee taking intermittent leave probably won’t get everything done. it’s up to the employer to figure out how to fill the gap ...

You can require certification form directly from doctor 05/14/2008   Are you concerned about possible FMLA abuse? The law and FMLA regulations allow employers to insist on receiving FMLA certification forms directly from a health care provider’s office—and not by way of the employee. That way, there’s little chance the employee can alter what the doctor has certified ...

Beware reverse sex discrimination when setting schedules and overtime policies 05/14/2008   It isn’t unusual for fathers to have extensive child care responsibilities. Make sure your policies recognize that fact. Don’t succumb to stereotypical thinking. For example, if you waive some work requirements so mothers can pick up their kids from day care, give fathers the same flexibility ...

Class action claims Illinois Bell underpays call center staff 05/14/2008   Illinois Bell/AT&T Illinois is the latest target in a national wave of class-action back-wage lawsuits brought on behalf of call center employees. A lawsuit against the phone company says it pays workers only for time when they are logged into the phone system, ignoring time spent working when they are not on the phone ...

Resurrection faces state charges after refusing to pay back wages 05/14/2008   After years of dodging an Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) order to pay back wages to its workers, Resurrection Health Care will have to square off with the state attorney general’s office ...

Don’t let jury duty force you to defend yourself in court 05/14/2008   Both Illinois and federal laws require employers to let their employees off for jury duty. Additionally, employers may not penalize employees for serving on a jury. No matter how obvious this is, every now and then, employers try to get back at employees who perform their civic duties. It never works ...

Court clears up confusion over meal breaks 05/13/2008   Do you have to provide employees who work eight hours or more during a shift with an unpaid meal break away from all job responsibilities? Or can you continue to pay employees while they eat, expecting them to take calls or respond to work needs? ...

Duluth: Municipal retirees should sign up for Medicare 05/13/2008   The city of Duluth says it can save up to $600,000 per year if 37 of its retirees sign up for Medicare. The city discovered during a recent audit that some of its retirees weren’t enrolled in the federal retiree health insurance program ...

Workers' lawsuit says hotel owners enslaved them 05/13/2008   Four Filipino immigrants have filed a federal lawsuit accusing a pair of Oacoma, S.D., hotel owners of subjecting them to conditions of slavery, forced labor, trafficking in persons and peonage—essentially indentured servitude ...

What are the rules on parenting leave for small employers? 05/13/2008   Q. We are a small shop with 15 employees. One of our full-time employees who has been with us for more than five years recently announced that his wife is pregnant. He requested eight weeks’ leave after the baby is born. Are we required to give him this leave? ...

Of MySpace & Money: Don't Try to Muzzle Millennials' Salary Talk 05/13/2008   You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century! The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here's why.

Effort to Extend Statute of Limitations on Pay-Bias Lawsuits Fails in Congress 05/12/2008   Federal anti-discrimination law gives employees either 180 or 300 days (depending on the state they live in) to file an employment discrimination claim with the EEOC. Pro-employee legislation that aimed to extend that limit much further failed in Congress this month.

Duty differences, experience enough to defeat equal pay claim 05/12/2008   The Equal Pay Act was passed to ensure that women are paid the same as men for substantially equal work. The law does allow for differences based on any factor “other than sex,” but you must be prepared to explain pay differentials in a way that clearly demonstrates why two employees in the same job receive different wages ...

Here's a tip: Know law on paying employees who work for tips 05/12/2008   Hundreds of thousands of Floridians rely on tips for part of their incomes. To stay on the right side of wage-and-hour laws, their employers need to understand the somewhat tricky interplay of tip income and the minimum wage ...

SE Michigan businesses leery of state-Run health care 05/09/2008   A survey of Southeast Michigan business owners by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce indicates serious reservations among area employers about state-run health care ...