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Wages & Hours

Government employers can limit when employees take flextime

06/05/2009

Some government employers let employees arrange their schedules to allow flexible hours. Changing those terms in a union environment may be an unfair labor practice. However, in one recent case, an Ohio appeals court upheld such a change because the union contract didn’t address the practice.

Can we make employees pay for work uniforms?

06/05/2009

Q. Are there any laws that prohibit me from charging my employees for their mandatory work uniforms?

May we ask employees to ‘volunteer’ their time?

06/05/2009

Q. We are considering asking our employees to donate some time back to the company as a way to save costs and avoid having to lay off anyone. By “donate time” I mean working one or more hours per week without pay. Is this legal?

Problem Solved: Real People … Real Comp & Benefits Solutions, July ’09

06/05/2009

This month’s collection of real-world quick tips from American business leaders, brought to you by members of The Alternative Board.

Rules of the road: Know when to pay hourly employees for travel time

06/02/2009
You don’t need to pay nonexempt employees for their commuting time to and from the workplace. That’s simple. But what if such employees occasionally travel off-site (or even overnight) for work reasons?

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 …

Must we pay out unused vacation days when we fire employees or they quit?

06/01/2009

Q. Is an employer required to pay workers for their unused vacation days when they resign or are terminated?

Lessons from the Courts: June 2009

05/27/2009

You don’t have to tolerate foul language … Customer gripe caused firing? Get it in writing … Ledbetter Act already spurring more pay cases … Track when you notify worker of firing … No signature? Settlement may still be binding.

Payroll pain: Can we ask staff to work for no pay?

05/27/2009

Q. We are having trouble making payroll and have asked our employees to give up pay for 20 hours per month while they work their regular schedules. Can we do this? Or should we just cut their salaries or hourly wages to make up the difference?

When must we pay for travel time?

05/27/2009

Q. Some of our employees travel out of the country on business. We provide a per diem amount for meals, etc. Is there any requirement regarding when we must start the per diem clock ticking? For example, if someone leaves on a trip Friday afternoon and returns Monday morning, do we have to pay for four full days?