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Employment Law

Previous pregnancy troubles are no reason to refuse hiring, rehiring

05/01/2005
Remind your managers: Contrary to popular belief, female employees don’t need to be pregnant to earn legal protections under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). Even nonpregnant employees can sue.
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Gauge what a person confronts, not overcomes, to see if he’s ‘disabled’

05/01/2005
Before taking employment action against impaired employees, evaluate their abilities thoroughly. Your goal: Determine if they would qualify as “disabled” under the ADA, and therefore, earn accommodations. Compare the employee’s abilities …

Sharpen your no-solicitation policy; vague language may let union in

05/01/2005
The best way to prevent employees from rallying support for a union in the workplace is to write and enforce a specific no-solicitation policy. To make sure it passes legal muster, …

Train all supervisory employees how to spot and take complaints

05/01/2005
Don’t think that you can automatically swat away a pesky sexual-harassment suit by saying the complaining employee didn’t follow your complaint procedure to a “T.” Courts may let employees pursue their …

Take same-race discrimination complaints seriously

05/01/2005
Don’t allow discrimination to continue at your workplace simply because the “discriminator” and “discriminatee” are in the same racial minority. Just as supervisors over age 40 can be guilty of age …

Tap into new recruitment resource for summer help

05/01/2005
If you’re looking to fill seasonal or permanent positions, check out a new government program that helps employers hook up with college students with disabilities.
The Labor Department’s Workforce Recruitment …

Arbitration agreements: Draft legal pact to stay out of court

05/01/2005
THE LAW. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a less costly way of resolving employment conflicts than going to court Also, good ADR programs often end up being a more peaceful forum …

Don’t deduct training costs from ex-Employee’s pay

05/01/2005

Q. As part of our new employees’ noncompete contracts, we’ve started including a clause that requires employees to repay the company (through payroll deduction) for training costs if they quit or are fired within one year. Are we OK legally? —S.M., Kentucky

‘Reasonable’ Maternity Leave Doesn’t Matter Under FMLA

05/01/2005

Q. Is there a law or reasonable standard regarding how many weeks maternity leave should be? And should we make that a written policy in our employee handbook? Even with FMLA, to which our employees are entitled, we thought maternity leave was either six or eight weeks, depending on type of delivery. —J.F., Pennsylvania

Pay Traveling Employees for Time Actually Worked

05/01/2005

Q. How should we compensate an hourly employee for an out-of-town, two-day (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) seminar? In particular, should we pay for the hours during the overnight hotel stay, since the employee must sleep there to be ready for the next day’s session? —N.G., North Carolina