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Employment Law

Stimulus law adds COBRA subsidy, tax changes

02/19/2009

The $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) signed on Feb. 17 by President Obama includes a handful of key HR-related provisions, including: COBRA subsidies, a Making Work Pay Credit and unemployment compensation.

It’s time for a pay discrimination self-audit

02/19/2009

Is your company vulnerable to employees’ claims that they weren’t paid the right amount due to company policy or discrimination? Now’s a dangerous time to answer “yes” or “I don’t know.” Reason: A perfect storm of trends is prompting more U.S. workers to pursue their pay-related claims in court.

Sleeping in peace: Can employee claim that video of his on-duty nap violates his privacy?

02/19/2009

What should you do if you suspect an employee is goofing off at work or perhaps sleeping at his desk? One employer recently took a high-tech approach to that problem, setting up a surveillance camera to catch an employee in the act. It worked, but it took a trip to court to finally put this case to bed.

Keep solid time records to prove whether employee is eligible for FMLA leave

02/19/2009

One criterion for employees to be eligible for FMLA leave is that they must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding the FMLA leave. That’s why it’s important to track employees’ hours, even hours worked by exempt employees, too.

EEOC: Discrimination claims up 26% since 2006

02/19/2009

Private-sector employees filed 95,400 charges of job discrimination with the EEOC in fiscal year 2008. That’s up 15.2% from the previous year and up 26% from 2006, according to a Washington Post report.

Obama signs 3 union-supported executive orders

02/19/2009

Following through on his promises to labor unions—strong financial supporters of his presidential campaign—President Obama recently signed a trio of pro-employee executive orders that undo Bush administration policies.

Must you offer FMLA for ‘possibility’ of serious illness?

02/19/2009

Don’t be so quick to pull out the “request denied” stamp when employees want to use FMLA leave to determine whether they have a qualifying “serious condition.” As a new court ruling shows, if an employee simply thinks she has a serious condition, she may take FMLA leave to have it checked out.

The HR I.Q. Test: March ’09

02/19/2009

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

Can we be liable for revoking a job offer?

02/19/2009

Q. We recently made a job offer to someone, rescinded the offer and then hired another applicant two months later. Is there anything illegal about that?

What if worker objects to her name on holiday card?

02/19/2009

Q. An employee objected to us putting her name (just her first name!) on our company’s “Holiday Greetings from Our Staff” card. She said she doesn’t celebrate holidays for religious reasons and using her name without permission was illegal. The boss said she should “get over it.” Did we set ourselves up for a lawsuit?