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Compensation & Benefits

ADA: Accommodate fertility treatment, adoption

02/09/2010

Employees who suffer from an impaired ability to become pregnant are disabled under the ADA. Since childbearing is a major life activity, conditions that interfere with it qualify as disabilities. That means that employees who are infertile or have low fertility may be entitled to time off as a reasonable accommodation.

7 bills to watch: Congress’ 2010 employment law agenda

02/09/2010

When Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts won January’s special election to fill the seat long occupied by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, Democrats lost their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. That means it will be that much more difficult for the Obama administration to make good on many of its pro-employee campaign promises. That’s not to say those employment law initiatives are dead. The following are the key initiatives pending in Congress.

Contractor suing? Don’t plan on quick dismissal

02/09/2010

One more thing to worry about if you use independent contractors: If a contractor sues over unpaid wages and overtime, it’s unlikely a court will dismiss the lawsuit early.

Sushi case shows how complicated tip credit can be

02/09/2010

A recent Florida case illustrates just how complicated the tip credit provision of the FLSA can be. In that case, a hostess at a Sushi Samba restaurant claims the restaurant forfeited its right to claim the tip credit because it distributed tips to employees who weren’t eligible to receive them. The controversy turns on the question of whether sushi chefs are tip-eligible employees.

Can we split a shift to avoid overtime?

02/09/2010

Q. We have an employee whose job requires her to perform check-in tasks for about an hour at the beginning of the day. She is then needed to perform certain check-out tasks eight hours later at the end of the day. During the remainder of her workday she performs various administrative services. To manage her time and avoid overtime, we began asking her to take an extra hour break during the middle of the day. She says she doesn’t want to take this additional break. Can we require her to take the additional breaks so that we don’t have to pay her overtime?

Unemployment well runs dry: 70% of states raise taxes

02/08/2010

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that by 2011, 40 state unemployment trust funds will be drained due to the prolonged recession. As a result, 35 states have increased their unemployment insurance taxes on employers for 2010.

Must vacation, sick leave be listed on pay stubs?

02/05/2010

Q. Our pay stubs currently list employees’ available vacation, sick and other leave hours. Our new software allows employees to log in and check that balance anytime. Can we eliminate that information from the pay stubs?

How can you rein in rogue ‘early clockers’?

02/05/2010

Do you have employees who clock in before their shift starts, then stand around drinking coffee for a half-hour? How can you cut down on this “on-the-clock-but-standing-around” time? …

RIF? Make sure layoff decision-makers don’t know workers’ FMLA status

02/03/2010

Economic times remain tough, and businesses are still finding they have to cut costs to survive. And cutting costs often means looking at a possible reduction in force. In most organizations facing that difficult prospect, a team of managers has to decide where the cuts should be made and what criteria to use when making those cuts. Make sure the decision-making team doesn’t have access to information about FMLA usage …

8 questions help you make the contractor vs. employee call

02/01/2010

With the IRS beginning a nationwide crackdown on employers that try to dodge payroll taxes, now’s the time to make sure your workers are properly classified. Starting in February, IRS auditors began poring over the records of thousands of employers to root out organizations that try to cheat the system by calling workers contractors when they’re actually employees.