• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

FMLA

Be sure documentation clearly shows rule breaking

03/29/2011
Employees who are terminated often look for some underlying, illegal reason and sue. Smart employers focus on documenting clear rule violations that justify termination decisions.

Employees can’t relitigate state case in federal court

03/29/2011
If an employee loses a case in state court and then doesn’t appeal, he can’t just march into federal court.

No personal supervisor liability under Title VII

03/29/2011

Some employees are so angry about perceived supervisor discrimination and harassment that they want the offending boss to suffer personally. They’ll often try to sue their supervisors directly. Fortunately, that doesn’t work for Title VII discrimination lawsuits.

FMLA isn’t carte blanche for all sick leave

03/23/2011

Some employees with chronic health conditions believe that getting approved for intermittent FMLA leave means they can take protected time off anytime they feel sick. That’s simply not true. Intermittent leave can only be taken for illness, treatment or flare-ups directly related to a condition for which a health care provider has certified intermittent leave.

How to avoid the FMLA ‘no-fire’ zone: Prorate performance goals to account for FMLA leave

03/18/2011

Sometimes employees will suddenly request FMLA leave when they know they face termination because they’re not meeting their performance goals. They think no one can be fired while on FMLA leave. Wrong! You can fire such a worker—as long as you first make performance goal adjustments that take their FMLA leave into account.

Summer FMLA leave to care for child: Permissible?

03/18/2011
Q. An employee asked to take 12 weeks of FMLA leave this summer because her kindergarten-age child will be out of school. She says her child is special-needs and can’t go to summer camp. Do we have to allow her to take what amounts to an unpaid summer vacation?

Extra leave under MPLA subject to employer approval

03/14/2011
Although they’re welcome to be more generous, employers are only obligated to provide six weeks of leave under the Minnesota Parental Leave Act

Your best defense against failure-to-hire suits: Sound hiring process, complete documentation

03/14/2011

It’s one of the HR profession’s hard truths: You never know which applicant may sue you if he or she isn’t hired. That means you must be ready to defend every hiring decision. The best way is to have a clear routine that everyone involved in the hiring process must use.

How to work with GINA–the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

03/14/2011
In late 2010, the EEOC published GINA regulations that provide employers with specific guidance concerning what information they may gather about their employees, how GINA interacts with the FMLA medical certification process and how any genetic information the employer obtains is to be treated.

FMLA isn’t carte blanche for all sick leave

03/04/2011

Some employees with chronic health conditions mistakenly believe that getting approved for intermittent FMLA leave means they can take protected time off anytime they feel ill. That’s simply not true. Intermittent leave can only be taken for illness, treatment or flare-ups directly related to a condition for which a health care provider has certified intermittent leave.