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You can use surveillance to spot workers’ comp fraud

09/01/2005

Q. How far can we go to make sure that 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 abusing the system? —D.V., Illinois

Know your ADA duty to employees with cancer

09/01/2005
The EEOC just published a Q&A document explaining when cancer is a qualified disability under the ADA and how you should accommodate employees with cancer. Reasonable accommodations may include intermittent leave, …

USERRA allows only one reinstatement, not two

08/01/2005
The federal Uniform Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) says that if an employee’s military-related absences last less than five years, you must reinstate the employee to his or her …

Calling in ‘sick’ won’t trigger FMLA; employee must give details

08/01/2005
What do you do with employees who call in sick with vague excuses, aches and pains and other less-than-convincing reasons? Can you discipline those people for unexcused absences without fearing that …

Intermittent FMLA leave may cause inconvenience

08/01/2005

Q. We have an employee on intermittent FMLA leave who periodically faints at work, is carried away in an ambulance, is off for a few days and then returns. Her position is critical. Do we have to continue with these absences? —R.R., Massachusetts

Always verify FMLA eligibility before approving leave

08/01/2005
Issue: Courts won’t look kindly on employers that OK an employee’s FMLA leave but then change their minds.
Risk: In such cases, courts could grant FMLA rights even if the …

Retain benefit eligibility after FMLA leave

08/01/2005

Q. We understand that employees on FMLA leave don’t lose investment toward retirement plans. Leave time is counted as work time. But our policy says that if employees are out for more than 30 days, their anniversary dates will change. Accrued paid-time off and vacation time will be based on the new anniversary date. Can we do this? —K.A., Connecticut

Break into vacation-Leave bank if sick leave is empty

08/01/2005

Q. If an employee is out sick but has already used up her sick-leave hours, can we legally subtract from her vacation time instead? —K.P., Michigan

Keep staff vacation schedules away from public view

07/01/2005
With summer-vacation season here, you may be tracking employees’ comings and goings using schedules posted on a bulletin board or online. But not everyone thinks so highly of publicly posted …

Jury duty: How to manage leave requests and pay issues

07/01/2005
THE LAW. No one is immune from jury duty. Even Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was called for duty
in his Massachusetts hometown. Al-though Breyer was dismissed from the pool, …