For determining reinstatement rights under the FMLA, it’s the job the employee was in at the time she began her FMLA leave that counts. As long as the job she returns to is substantially equivalent, it does not matter that the job may be below her capacities and educational background ...

Q. We recently could not reach an employee who works off-site. Then we learned he was responding to customer messages by saying he was on vacation. After we learned this, he contacted his supervisor and said he had been on vacation and would be on vacation the rest of the week. His supervisor reports that he had not requested vacation time beforehand—and our policy states that vacation time must be preapproved. This employee had been a marginal performer, and now his supervisor wants to fire him. Can we fire him for this? ...

An employee sometimes will look for any reason to file a lawsuit—especially if she thinks she has been treated unfairly but doesn’t have any direct evidence. That’s one good reason for justifying all employment-related decisions ...

What if you want to challenge an employee’s FMLA certification later—after you find out he’s been working elsewhere while on FMLA leave, for example? Are you stuck because you didn’t ask for a second or third medical opinion?...

You wouldn’t dream of having informal payroll policies, right? Yet too many employers treat vacation time—a form of compensation—as a casual entitlement. Getting too informal can cost you. A sound vacation policy addresses the following five elements ...

New Jersey has become the third state to adopt paid family leave. The law will allow workers to take up to six weeks of paid leave to care for newborns, newly adopted children or sick relatives. Workers, who will pay for the benefit through payroll deductions starting Jan. 1, will be entitled to two-thirds of their salary ...

Organizations with wellness programs report fewer sick days among participants, according to PreventDisease.com...

To manage the workload, employers have to know who will be at work and who will not. After all, when an employee isn’t at work, someone else has to step in and get the work done. Of course, employees sometimes do get sick or have emergencies. A well-crafted call-in policy can help employers cope with unexpected absences ...

Q. Is it legal in the state of Colorado for an employer to take away paid employee sick leave? If sick leave is a benefit, can the employer suddenly decide that it’s going to take it away, or does it have to pay you for the hours? Can the employer be required to freeze it for you to use if you need it? Can it be forced to pay accrued sick leave if you leave the company? ...

Ohio employers can fire chronically absent or tardy employees without worrying that unemployment compensation will be the reward for missing work. That’s true as long as the absences weren’t covered by the FMLA or other leave laws ...

The recently enacted Ohio Veterans Package amends the Ohio Civil Rights Act to bar discrimination based on “military status.” As a result, Ohio employers now face new legal requirements on both the state and federal fronts for how they treat military employees and their families ...

Washington, D.C., has become the second city to guarantee employees paid sick leave to care for themselves or a sick child. More than a dozen states are weighing legislation to mandate paid sick leave for employees ...

When global accounting firm KPMG hires a new employee, that recruit gets five weeks of paid vacation time—on Day One ...

It might be a good idea to nudge employees out the door if they’re reluctant to use their vacation time, especially if they handle your company’s finances. For example, the rogue trader who recently cost a French bank $7.2 billion in fraud reportedly never took a day’s vacation or sick leave ...

Employers, take notice: A new type of accommodation is required in New Jersey. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has signed into law an amendment to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) that makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee because of a sincerely held religious practice or observance ...