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California

Terminating returning soldier? You need to show cause and prove you gave warning

11/19/2010

Many employers still don’t realize it: If one of your employees is called to active military service that lasts 180 days or more, you can’t summarily terminate that employee once he is back at work. Even if he left as an at-will employee, for one year he can only be discharged for cause.

You must try to prevent co-worker harassment–but you’re not expected to be clairvoyant

11/19/2010

With co-worker harassment, employers are responsible only if they already knew the harasser was trouble because other employees had already complained about harassment, or the harassed employee had previously complained that she felt uncomfortable or harassed. Fortunately, employers don’t have to be clairvoyant.

Ban all supervisor comments about workers’ ages

11/19/2010

Here’s something to include in your regular supervisory training sessions: Remind everyone that they should banish from their vocabularies any slang or colorful terminology that hints at age discrimination. “Ageisms” can make legitimate business decisions like altered compensation plans, new job duties and other necessary changes look like pretexts for getting rid of older workers.

Beware setting up employees for embarrassment

11/19/2010

Employers have an obligation: Use their best efforts to create a workplace environment free of sexual and other illegal harassment. That means managers and supervisors should always consider “what if” before they push employees into difficult situations. Consider, for example, what happened when several male firefighters were ordered to ride on a firetruck as part of a gay pride parade.

How to Collect Employee Medical Info Under New FMLA Rules

11/10/2010
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Don’t tell employee she can take FMLA leave until you have checked her eligibility

10/15/2010

Under limited circumstances, employees who aren’t actually eligible for FMLA leave may become eligible if their employers tell them they are. That’s why you should tell employees that you won’t have a definitive answer about whether they can take FMLA leave until you have checked on their eligibility.

How should we structure an anti-nepotism policy?

10/15/2010
Q. To prevent productivity and morale problems, we would like to adopt a policy banning the hiring of our current employees’ spouses. Would this be lawful?

How should we go about implementing a system for recording employees’ phone conversations?

10/15/2010
Q. Many of our employees spend most of their time dealing with customers over the phone. For quality control purposes and to make sure workers aren’t making personal telephone calls, we would like to record the calls employees make on company telephones. Is that legal?

FMLA: Who is considered a ‘key employee’?

10/15/2010
Q. On the U.S. Department of Labor’s Form WH-381 “Employer’s Response to Employee,” there is a line that asks whether the worker is a “key employee” as described in the FMLA regulations. I always check the box indicating that the worker is a key employee. How should I mark these boxes? I consider most of our workers key employees, and I do not want to offend anyone by suggesting that they are not.

Now at full strength, will NLRB continue anti-business bias?

10/15/2010
Now that it’s finally back in business, the NLRB has issued several controversial and decidedly anti-business decisions. You may recall that the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that NLRB decisions made while there were just two board members are invalid. Those old cases and all new ones are now being heard by a new set of board members, three of whom are former union lawyers.