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Compensation & Benefits

All together now: Teaching workers to ‘manage’ their bosses

08/02/2011
Pay-for-performance is effective only when managers spell out for each employee exactly what he or she must do to get paid more or reap perks like flexible scheduling. In reality, too few managers do that. They need to know supervision is a two-way street. Solution: Sometimes employees must “manage the boss.”

Worker lost $700: Can we make him pay it back?

08/02/2011
When an employee loses company property or money, what recourse do employers have to recoup their loss? It depends on the applicable state wage law … and on whether you believe the “loss” was really accidental.

What should we do? We suspect string of workplace injuries might be workers’ comp fraud

08/01/2011
Q. We’ve had an exceptional number of suspicious injuries at work so far this year. We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but how can we determine if these injuries are part of a workers’ comp insurance fraud scheme?

Commission-based staff: Paid for training time?

08/01/2011
Q. We have medical providers at our clinic who are paid straight commission based on the number of patients treated and the treatment cost. Sometimes, they block time out of their schedules to attend training on laser techniques or continuing medical training for their licenses. I know that most employees must be paid for training time, but this is different. Do we have to pay them?

Employee or independent contractor? Actual working conditions dictate classification

07/29/2011

Employers sometimes think that if they hire “independent contractors,” they won’t have to worry about things like benefits, overtime and the like. But some make the mistake of ­assuming that merely because those workers sign contracts stating that they’re not employees, that’s enough. It’s not.

Should we log independent contractors’ hours?

07/26/2011
Q. Does asking independent contractors to complete a time sheet jeopardize their contractor status?

Must we pay for pre-shift talk?

07/26/2011
Q. Last week, we asked a nonexempt employee to come in 30 minutes before her regular start time to talk to her about a complaint that had come to our attention. Do we have to pay her for the time spent in discussions with management?

How should we pay if our time clock breaks?

07/26/2011
Q. Because of a time-clock malfunction, we couldn’t determine how much pay we owed some employees. What is our obligation to pay employees if we can’t calculate the exact number of hours worked? Is there any penalty for the delayed payment?

Requesting light duty isn’t an official FMLA request

07/26/2011
The FMLA grants time off for em­­ployees with serious health conditions, but they must let employers know they need leave. Simply requesting light-duty work isn’t enough.

Supreme Court sides with Walmart in massive class-action case

07/26/2011
In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court in June rejected class-action status for an estimated 1.5 million female employees who brought gender-discrimination claims against Walmart, the country’s largest private employer. The issue before the High Court wasn’t whether Walmart discriminates against women, but whether the 1.5 million-member class was legitimate.