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Ask the Attorney Archives

“We fired an employee after he gave two weeks’ notice: Must we pay for those two weeks?”

05/04/2010
Q. “Say a resigning employee gives two weeks’ notice but we decide to terminate the employee right away instead. Are we still obligated to pay the person for those two weeks he gave notice for?” — S.F., Texas

“Can an employer put limits on references for ex-employees?”

04/27/2010
Q. “I am wondering if there are any rules/regulations/laws about putting limits on the references we give for previous employees. For example, can we say we’ll only give references up to three years after they leave, or give no more than five references for each ex-employee?” — S.S., Virginia

Are arbitration agreements a good idea?

04/19/2010
Q. “I hear that some employers have employees sign arbitration agreement documents. Can you give me information on that?” — D.K., Oklahoma

“Can we avoid overtime by paying employee as an independent contractor for a ‘second’ job?”

04/13/2010
Q. “We have an employee who works in our shipping department 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  After 5 p.m., he spends two to three hours cleaning the bathrooms, offices and lunch room. We, of course, would not like to have to pay overtime for these hours he works cleaning. He punches out at 5 p.m. and I pay him separately as an independent contractor for his cleaning hours. I have been told by our CFO that we cannot do this for overtime reasons. Can we?” — M.M., North Carolina

“In rehire decision, can we take personality and attitude into account?”

04/05/2010
Q. “We will be rehiring some of our laid-off personnel. Not all of them have the same attitude and personality that are desired. Can we take into account those characteristics in our rehire decision? Those characteristics weren’t always supported in the ex-employee’s personnel file.” — L.A., Arkansas

Is it legally risky to celebrate employees’ birthdays in the office?

03/23/2010
Q. “Can we celebrate employees’ birthdays in the office? Someone said it could be against the law for identity theft reasons.” — P.A.

“During interviews, can we ask candidates if they are smokers?”

03/15/2010

Q. “Can we ask during an interview if a candidate is a tobacco smoker?”  —  M.C., South Carolina

Can all paychecks be mailed, or must we offer to hand-deliver them to employees?

03/08/2010

Q. Are we required to allow employees to come into the office to pick up payroll checks, or can we mail all payroll checks? — T.H., Minn.

Are ‘group’ time sheets legal — or must employees’ hours be kept private?

03/02/2010

Q. "We have three companies. One of them wants to handle time sheets differently. Currently, we require each individual employee to fill out his or her own, personal time sheet. But this company wants to list all its employees on one time sheet. Is this legal? Or should each employeee’s time sheet be kept confidential?" — P.A.

So, what exactly is an ‘exempt’ employee?

02/22/2010

Q. "What exactly what is an exempt employee?"   — M.A., North Carolina