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Employment Law

Exempt or not? Forget 50% rule for store managers who multitask

01/15/2013
Good news for employers that classify their store managers as exempt from overtime, even though they spend more than half their time doing nonexempt tasks. As the following case shows, store managers can still retain their exempt status if they multitask on exempt and nonexempt duties throughout the day.

Don’t let fear of being sued stop you from disciplining employee

01/14/2013
Don’t let the fear of litigation keep you from making necessary decisions. Sometimes, you have to discipline employees for the good of the organization.

Layoffs looming? Use past reviews to decide who stays and who goes

01/14/2013
Smart employers use past per­­for­­mance rankings as the major criterion for laying off employees during a reduction in force. The reason is obvious: Since the rankings predate the layoff decisions, they’re almost impossible to challenge.

Be sure managers know they can’t discipline employees for using FMLA

01/14/2013
Don’t let an angry manager turn routine FMLA leave into expensive and time-consuming litigation. Make sure all supervisors understand their FMLA obligations—and that they have no choice but to cheerfully allow em­­ployees to exercise their rights.

New DOL guidance on FMLA leave to care for adult children

01/14/2013
It has always been understood that employees are entitled to take FMLA leave to care for minor children with serious health conditions. But it’s been less clear how the FMLA applies to employees who need time off to care for an adult son or daughter. Now the U.S. Department of Labor has weighed in with guidance.

Combatting ‘cyber-slander’: How to protect your organization

01/14/2013
Complaints from employees, customers and competitors are nothing new. Until recently, if complaints crossed the line from mere opinions to downright lies, companies could threaten a defamation lawsuit. Today, however, companies face a more insidious and growing problem: Internet libel, commonly known as “cyber-slander.”

Track all discipline and check for fairness

01/13/2013
Do you monitor all discipline and make sure employees who break the same rule suffer similar consequences? It’s the best way to win discrimination lawsuits.

Background checks: How safe is too safe?

01/11/2013

Q. We are considering instituting a criminal background check policy for all employee positions. We’ve heard scary stories of lawsuits regarding negligent hiring, and we’d really like to avoid that sort of litigation, not to mention the negative media attention. Is there any downside to having an “across the board” criminal background check policy?

Do we need to track hours for pieceworkers?

01/11/2013

Q. We are doing an internal review of our recordkeeping, and we realized that we track hours for our on-site transcriptionists but we have not been tracking the hours for our transcriptionists who work from home. The on-site employees are non­exempt and we pay them an hourly wage. However, the remote employees are paid piece rates—a certain rate for the number of words transcribed from dictation. Do we have to keep track of their hours?

Orchestra musicians refuse to dance to ballet’s tune

01/11/2013

A labor dispute forced the Minnesota Dance Theatre to use recorded music instead of a live orchestra for December’s holiday presentation of “The Nutcracker” ballet. According to the union representing Twin Cities classical musicians, the sticking point wasn’t monetary, but artistic.