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Employment Law

Who’s an ‘outside sales rep’? Confusion causes $17 million error

05/01/2003
Make sure you’re not shoehorning delivery workers into an “outside sales rep” category to avoid paying them overtime. To be considered exempt under the …

Outsourcing workers won’t let you escape wage-and-hour laws

05/01/2003
When it comes to basic compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), simply calling your hourly workers “outsourced employees” won’t let you off the hook …

Monitoring staff phones? Hang up when you realize it’s a personal call

05/01/2003
You can monitor your employees’ communications, within reasonable limits. But you can’t let your monitoring escalate to eavesdropping and violate workers’ …

Do you approve dubious FMLA leave? You’re not alone

05/01/2003
Half of the human resource professionals polled recently say they’ve approved Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requests that they believed were not legitimate. They felt obligated to grant the leave …

EEOC launches ‘referral back’ mediation program

05/01/2003
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is starting a new voluntary mediation pilot program in which private-sector discrimination charges filed …

FLSA overhaul: What new overtime changes mean to you

05/01/2003
Your company could be forced to shell out more overtime pay to lower-paid workers under a long-awaited Labor Department modernization of the …

Sexual harassment: Your best game plan is prevention

05/01/2003
THE LAW. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although Title VII doesn’t specifically mention …

Post Vacation Schedules in Employee-Only Areas

05/01/2003

Q. We post employees’ vacation schedules in the employee lunchroom. Occasionally, outside visitors or customers visit the lunchroom, too. Some employees have complained about this posting policy, saying it borders on invasion of privacy. Are they right and should we stop doing this from a legal standpoint? —M.M., New Jersey

Don’t cut severance if it violates written contract

05/01/2003

Q. We need to change our severance policy, mostly due to declining business conditions. Can we reduce the severance amounts cited in employment agreements with certain staff as long as we notify them of the change? —J.C., Illinois

Most Nonprofits Aren’t Exempt From COBRA

05/01/2003

Q. We’re a nonprofit, and we offer health insurance to our employees. If an employee is enrolled in the health plan and voluntarily quits, are we required to offer COBRA? Or does our nonprofit status let us off the hook? —A.B., Tennessee