04/27/2012
Here’s something to keep in mind if you’re contemplating a reduction in force: If you plan to offer severance packages in exchange for a liability release, make sure you aren’t too selective about who gets the best deals.
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04/16/2012
Employers that are prepared to offer cold, hard facts to defend their decisions—even those that may look suspicious at first glance—rarely lose lawsuits. The more objective the business reasons you have for personnel decisions, the better off you are.
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04/12/2012
USERRA is not a veteran’s preference law. It merely guarantees that service members can return to work no better or worse off than if they never left.
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04/09/2012
Q. We are selling our small business (15 employees). The company buying us won’t be hiring our staff. How many days’ notice is required to notify our employees? Will our employees qualify for unemployment benefits?
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03/29/2012
Faced with a sick employee, you may recommend short-term disability leave to receive medical treatment. But that could violate the ADA if the employee neither needs nor wants all that time off.
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03/29/2012
While it is illegal to discriminate against an individual based on his or her national origin, that doesn’t mean that discrimination against someone based on her immigration status is forbidden. That’s because immigration status isn’t tied to a particular national origin.
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03/09/2012
Here’s something to consider when planning a reduction in force: If you know the move will mean someone in a protected class will lose his job, think strategically in case he sues.
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03/05/2012
After companies merge, there are often too many employees for the remaining available positions. That’s especially true when the new entity also reorganizes operations. Some employees will wind up on the chopping block. Be careful how you choose termination candidates. The best approach is to treat the decision like a hiring or promotion.
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01/25/2012
Sometimes, layoffs are inevitable … and they’re always a legal minefield. Get it wrong and your attorneys’ fees can easily exceed the labor costs you hoped to save. Decide who should go in much the same way you decide who to hire. Look at the jobs that will survive and select the employees who best fit those jobs.
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01/06/2012
Sometimes, layoffs are inevitable, something that’s always hard—and often a legal minefield. Get it wrong and your attorneys’ fees can easily exceed the labor costs you hoped to save. Decide who should go in much the same way you decide who should fill a new position.
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01/05/2012
Q. I will soon either sell my business or close it down. Either way, I will most likely have to lay off all eight of my employees. What are the legal requirements in Pennsylvania in connection with these layoffs?
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12/30/2011
When any valued employee leaves, the company experiences a loss. The loss is greater, however, when the former employee departs to work for a competitor and begins using the company’s confidential information or trade secrets. HR has a key role to play in protecting a company’s proprietary information. Here’s how to do it.
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12/16/2011
If you must eliminate jobs, make sure you create a clear paper trail explaining why and how you made the decision to terminate a particular individual. That’s especially important if the employee had discrimination charges pending—or a history of filing them.
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12/01/2011
If you must cut staff, you naturally want to terminate the least productive workers and keep the most productive ones. You could make the decision on the basis of past performance evaluations. But what if there aren’t any?
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11/28/2011
Before you toss that handwritten note into the employee’s file today, stop for a second and read it. Years from now, will you remember what that chicken-scratch meant? Many lawsuits have turned on one or two words scrawled by a manager or HR pro after employee meetings and conversations.
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