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Control costs with furlough strategy that’s flexible, fair

06/05/2009

If your organization is limping through the economic downturn, you’ve no doubt considered cutting down your labor burden to save money. Before you resort to radical surgery—in the form of layoffs—consider a more benign cure that increases the odds of a full recovery. Furloughs—requiring staff to take unpaid time off—can reduce payroll costs without inflicting long-term damage.

HR groups fire back at mandatory sick leave legislation

06/05/2009

Congress is considering legislation that would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave per employee per year, an expansion of the FMLA that a coalition of HR and business groups immediately decried.

Lawsuits on the rise: Audit your policies to prevent litigation

06/05/2009

The economy is a shambles, and employers are doing everything they can to stay in business. That includes terminations, salary and wage cuts and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk. Have your company’s personnel policies and practices had a checkup lately? A comprehensive audit is one of the easiest ways to spot problems.

Consider challenging disability application after discharge

06/05/2009

Public employees who become disabled may be entitled to disability retirement. But if the employee’s disability application coincides with discharge, consider aggressively challenging the application and asking for further medical review.

How can we prepare for a flu pandemic?

06/05/2009

Q. I am very concerned about the H1N1 flu outbreak, especially if it flares up again this fall. Are there are steps I should take to prepare my business if an employee contracts the illness?

Paid sick leave for all workers? Congress weighs the idea

06/01/2009

Legislation introduced in Congress on May 19 would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide at least seven days of paid sick leave per employee per year.

Economy has workers saying ‘no’ to vacation, ‘yes’ to OT

06/01/2009

Vacations appear to be another victim of Americans’ tight budgets and layoff fears. More than one-third of workers say they won’t use all their allotted vacation time this year, and just 39% plan to take one compete week off …

Tell bosses: Keep family planning and pregnancy talk out of the workplace

06/01/2009

It’s natural to ask questions when you learn someone at work is going to have a baby. But it’s quite another thing when pregnancy-related questions come from supervisors. It’s best to let HR handle any leave requests and the like. Otherwise, you just might find your questions interpreted as anti-pregnancy bias if you end up having to fire a pregnant employee.

How to legally handle chronically late workers

05/27/2009

Employers expect employees to get to work on time. Occasional problems with traffic or family issues sometimes make employees late. But chronic tardiness is another thing altogether. While most employers track tardiness occurrences, they should do more. How?

Firing after FMLA leave: How soon is ‘too soon’?

05/27/2009

An employer fired a worker just six weeks after she returned from FMLA leave. Six weeks is like a nanosecond on the retaliation stopwatch. But the court still dismissed the case. Why?