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Susan Lessack

Trouble in the air: The legal ailments of sick-building syndrome

09/24/2008

Although it may seem like the far-fetched excuse of an employee hoping to take a few days off from work, a condition known as “sick building syndrome” (SBS) is real. Some employees suffering from SBS have brought claims under the ADA. Others have sought recovery under state workers’ compensation laws …

Is it illegal to read others’ work e-mail?

09/24/2008

Q. I have reason to believe that someone in my department is reading my e-mail without my consent. Isn’t that illegal? …

What should we do if we suspect an employee is abusing workers’ comp?

09/24/2008

Q. How far can we go to make sure employees aren’t taking advantage of our company while they’re out on workers’ comp leave? Can we, for example, call them at home to make sure they are resting and not out working another job or otherwise abusing the system? …

Can we require male employees to keep their hair cut short?

09/24/2008

Q. May we require male employees’ hair be a certain length, or is that discrimination? Also, may we prohibit beards? …

How should we respond to employee’s fear she’s being stalked?

09/24/2008

Q. One of our female employees says her ex-boyfriend is stalking her. She hasn’t been able to get a restraining order against him. We’re worried that he may show up and harm her or other workers. Can we fire or suspend her? …

Is it OK to exclude vacation pay when figuring base rate for overtime?

09/24/2008

Q. When we are figuring employees’ base pay for overtime calculations, can we exclude their vacation pay?

Termination by phone: legal but unwise

07/24/2008

Q. We have an employee who has been working from home. We’ve decided we really need someone in the office. Can we terminate her by phone? Or do we have to call her into the office? …

Post-childbirth FMLA leave: Taken in two parts?

07/17/2008

Q. One of our employees recently immigrated to the United States. She is pregnant and told us she plans to take eight weeks’ FMLA leave immediately after the child is born. A few months later, she’d like to return to her home country to visit family for a month. In other words, she wants to split her FMLA leave into an eight-week period and a four-week period. Can FMLA leave for a new child be split up in this fashion?

Flex schedules: Do we have to offer to everyone?

07/01/2008

Q. Two of our employees are struggling with serious family issues that make it hard for them to get to work on time. We’ve let them adjust their schedules. Now we have others who want to adjust their schedules … Do we have to give schedule flexibility to all employees?

COBRA claim for employee who didn’t sign up for health insurance?

04/25/2008

Q. We offer insurance benefits that begin three months after hire. Due to changing business conditions, we had to terminate an employee after only six months on the job. It seems that the worker wasn’t signed up for the health plan on his termination date. Does he now have any claim to COBRA? …