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Compensation & Benefits

Slumping auto market puts salespeople out of commission

04/14/2009

Commissioned salespeople are hurting in this economy, but their employers may be feeling the pinch, too. Take, for example, Rick Case Enterprise, a company that owns several Broward County auto dealerships.

8 ways to trim marginal benefits, max out those that work

04/14/2009

In today’s pared-to-the-bone business environment, you can’t waste time or money offering benefits no one cares about. If you haven’t already, now’s the time to take a magnifying glass to your benefits. Look for efficiencies in these eight places.

What happens if workers’ comp carrier doesn’t respond to referral request?

04/14/2009

Q. The authorized treating physician of an employee who suffered a job-related injury referred the employee to a pain management specialist. Now our employee tells us that our workers’ compensation carrier has not responded to the referral request. The carrier evidently believes that this referral is not reasonably and medically necessary. Can it deny the referral request for that reason?

Document warnings to chronically late worker

04/14/2009

Your documentation of an employee’s chronic tardiness will prove its value if you fire the employee and she sues for some kind of discrimination. If you can show you let the employee know about your concerns and the consequences, rest assured she would have a hard time winning her case.

Boss triggers lawsuits? Review all decisions

04/14/2009

If you have a manager or supervisor whose decisions have caused lawsuits that you have lost, be on your toes the next time that manager has to make an employment decision. Make absolutely sure that you can pin the decision on some objective reason.

Discovered performance problems while worker was on FMLA leave? You can fire him

04/14/2009

What if you discover during an employee’s FMLA leave that the employee wasn’t as stellar as you always believed? What if you couldn’t have known that until you hired a temporary replacement. Must you bring the employee back? No, according to a recent 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision.

What is the employee’s responsibility to notify us she needs FMLA leave?

04/14/2009

Q. We received a note from an employee’s physician simply stating that she was ill. On one occasion, she had to go to the emergency room from work, and she subsequently called in sick one day about a month or two later. Is this sufficient notice under the FMLA to require us to regard this as a request for extended FMLA leave?

When making exempt/nonexempt call, actual duties trump résumé or job description

04/14/2009

Don’t rely on old job descriptions or résumés to prove you have properly classified an employee as exempt from overtime. Instead, make sure employees’ job descriptions actually reflect the day-to-day work they’re performing. Little else counts.

Discrimination difference: Unfair not always illegal

04/14/2009

We’d all like to think we run a fair workplace. But people are imperfect, and supervisors sometimes aren’t fair. It’s only when that unfairness harms members of a protected class that the practice is illegal.

United Airlines to pay $850,000 settlement for disability bias

04/14/2009

Chicago-based United Airlines agreed to settle a disability discrimination suit stemming from practices at San Francisco International Airport. The case involved a United policy restricting overtime for workers who had been placed in light-duty assignments.