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The HR I.Q. Test: August ’08

07/17/2008
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Can the DOL contact our former employees?

07/17/2008
Q. We’re in the middle of a U.S. Department of Labor audit. Investigators are looking at payroll records for the past two years. Now they want the names, addresses, phone numbers and positions of all employees who left within the past two years. Do they have the right to this information? Can they go back two years? — D.G., Rhode Island …

Relying on law enforcement exemption? Be prepared to show volunteers meet the test

07/07/2008
Government agencies that employ fewer than five people in fire protection or law enforcement aren’t required to pay those employees overtime. A common problem is that many small public agencies rely on volunteers to perform firefighting and law enforcement duties. If that’s true at your agency, make absolutely sure those “volunteers” meet the volunteer test …

Tech writers’ wage-Hour suit gets class action status

07/01/2008
A California judge recently certified a class of about 250 to 300 technical writers employed by Sun Microsystems and SeeBeyond Technology who claimed they were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay and denied meal breaks …

How should we pay exempt employee who was terminated midway through the week?

07/01/2008
Q. We recently terminated an exempt employee halfway through a workweek. Given the Fair Labor Standards Act requirement that exempt employees must be paid on a salary basis, are we required to pay the employee for the entire week?

Don’t delay paying overtime for workers on temp assignments

07/01/2008
Sometimes, employers send employees away on temporary assignments. Often, that means long hours in strange locations and less communication between employees and the home office. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can delay paying legitimate wages—such as overtime—if the employee isn’t exempt …

Public employers, take note: Appeals court rules on firefighter/Paramedic exemption

07/01/2008
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over New Jersey employers, has finally ruled on a sticky point that has perplexed many fire departments. The court has concluded that paramedics who also have firefighting responsibilities can be paid less than time-and-a-half for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act …

Salary reductions and exempt status

07/01/2008
Q. We are considering reducing salaries across the board because of a slowdown in business. Will reducing the salary of exempt employees jeopardize their exempt status? …

Unpaid time off and exempt employees

07/01/2008
Q. Some of our exempt salaried employees are requesting time off without pay. Can we do this without jeopardizing their exempt status? …

HR Specialist Editors Bring You the Best from SHRM Chicago

06/24/2008
For a week each year, the Society for Human Resource Management’s Annual Conference becomes the center of the HR world. HR Specialist editors have joined 13,000 of our peers in Chicago this week for four days of professional development covering HR’s hottest topics and presented by the profession’s  leading experts. Here’s some of the best from the world’s biggest HR conference.