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Employment Law

Audit your classifications before requiring overtime

04/01/2003

Q. What are the legal ramifications of requiring all employees to work a minimum of 45 hours a week (nine hours a day)? Everyone in the office is an exempt employee. —S.M., New Jersey

Don’t Require Direct Deposit

04/01/2003

Q. Can a business require employees to use direct deposit of paychecks? —N.C., Kansas

One ‘come-on’ can equal sexual harassment

03/01/2003
Don’t hesitate to discipline first-time sexual-harassment violators. Even one outrageous comment or act, if severe enough, can make your company liable for fostering …

Lower-level bias can illegally taint firing decision

03/01/2003
When it comes to discrimination affecting your company’s hiring and firing decisions, what you don’t know can hurt you. That’s why it’s important to reiterate …

Anyone can challenge medical inquiries, not just disabled workers

03/01/2003
Don’t let your guard down when interviewing someone who doesn’t appear to suffer from a disability. If you ask an illegal question, anyone can hit you with …

Fast fix to FLSA error can save you, but ‘correction window’ closes fast

03/01/2003
If you screw up on a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) pay issue, don’t count on the “window of corrections” to save you. Sure, this Labor Department rule allows you to …

Your safety rules outweigh employee ‘personal appearance’ rights.

03/01/2003
Company dress codes will withstand any legal challenge if they’re gender-neutral and involve a legitimate business reason. Recent example: A county prohibited …

Simple pain complaint doesn’t count as FMLA notice.

03/01/2003
A worker who previously fractured his coccyx told his boss he was “in pain from his tailbone” and needed to go to the doctor that day. Although the boss told him …

Don’t conspire with competitors to freeze workers out of a job

03/01/2003
Never agree with another company to refrain from hiring each other’s employees unless your workers and the other company’s workers sign the agreement. Reason: …

Job-bias claims in 2002 saw biggest one-year jump in decade

03/01/2003
Here’s one more reason to crank up your anti-discrimination training: Job-discrimination complaints filed in 2002 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)jumped …