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Start of absence, not approval date, sets 12-week FMLA clock ticking

09/01/2004
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave. When do those 12 weeks officially begin? A new court ruling …

Lay down the law on when staff can take vacation leave

09/01/2004
Issue: Productivity takes a hit when key employees take vacation at key moments. Benefit: You can legally tell employees when they can take …

Sniff out suspicious FMLA requests with this 9-step plan

09/01/2004
Issue: Half of all HR professionals say they’ve approved FMLA requests that they believed weren’t legitimate. Risk: Employees who “work” the system to earn …

Courts Differ on Half-Day Deduction Rules

08/01/2004

Q. You’ve said that a company can’t deduct a half-day for an exempt employee who has used all her sick and vacation time; it must be in full-day increments. But what if the employee hasn’t used all her banked sick and vacation time? Could an employer require the employee to use that instead? —S.V., North Carolina

ADA doesn’t give employee freedom to redefine his job

08/01/2004

Q. One of our employees has been out on disability leave for almost 16 months. He says he wants to return to work, but only if we give him a supervisory position without a lot of strenuous activity. We have no such position available. We’ve offered him other positions, but he’s refused them all. Can we legally terminate him? —L.B., North Carolina

You don’t have to accept after-the-fact proof of FMLA leave

07/01/2004
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires workers to give their employers notice of their need for leave. But you have the right to deny leave when the provided information …

You can set rules on when employees take vacation time

07/01/2004
While vacation time is a mainstay of basic benefit packages, employers are not legally required to offer paid vacation to employees. But if you do offer vacation time, don’t be afraid …

How to spot a dishonest purchasing manager

07/01/2004
Issue: Employees handling your organization’s purse strings could be pulling them in the wrong way. Risk: Lax controls leave your organization wide open to invoice fraud. Action: Suggest the …

Get tough with habitually absent employees

07/01/2004

Q. We have a new administrative employee in our pediatric office who missed 22 days of work in her first nine weeks. She has doctor excuses for illnesses for most of the days, but my front office is in shambles. Can I put her on written warning for excessive absences? Can I terminate her? —C.F., Georgia

Make Full-Day Deductions, Not Partial, for Exempt Staff

06/01/2004

Q. If an exempt employee uses all her sick time and vacation time, then takes a half day off for personal reasons, can I deduct for that half day, or does it have to be a whole day? Has that changed under the new law? —Barbara, Louisiana