• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Privacy

How to craft noncompete agreements

08/01/2007

Q. What can I do to avoid unauthorized disclosure of sensitive company information when an employee departs? …

It’s the truth: no lie-detector tests

07/01/2007

Q. I want to know whether applicants have ever stolen from or been fired by a prior employer. Can I require them to take a lie-detector test?

No expectation of privacy on work PCs

07/01/2007

Q.  An employee recently complained that she had received pornographic e-mail messages and links to X-rated web sites from some of her co-workers. I want to review these messages — and other messages these guys have sent — to figure out exactly how large a problem I’m facing. Can I do this?

After cleaning out his desk, he cleaned out their data, too

07/01/2007

A disgruntled former IT worker for Pentastar Aviation in Waterford hacked into the company’s systems and deleted sensitive employee data, causing $34,000 in damages. He’s now facing criminal charges …

Can we install in-Plant security cameras without telling employees?

07/01/2007

Q. We have a theft problem in our plant. Our plant manager would like to install security cameras at key locations and exits, and would like to do this without telling our employees so that we can catch the guilty party. Is there any reason why we should not proceed with installing the cameras? …

Suspect employees of theft? Questions are OK, but detaining risks ‘False imprisonment’ claim

07/01/2007

A high percentage of workplace theft is the work of insiders. That’s one reason you may want to question employees when money or goods disappear. But don’t act like the police …

The right way to check validity of doctor’s note

06/01/2007

Q. Our company requires a doctor’s note for employees who are out sick more than two days. Sometimes the notes look like something the cat dragged in. Can we call the doctor’s office to simply verify the note is real?—E.W., Pennsylvania

Use confidentiality clause to guard against ‘Litigation theft’

06/01/2007

Employees pursuing legal actions against their employers sometimes snoop around to see what documentary “evidence” of wrongdoing they can find around the office. Protect yourself by having a clear policy against such unauthorized document distribution …

FCRA Is the Ticket to a Jury Trial for HIV-Positive Employees

06/01/2007

Florida’s courts have expanded protection for HIV-positive employees under the Florida Civil Rights Act. At first glance, the law appears to be a state version of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act and the ADA all rolled into one. But state court interpretation of the act may grant Florida employees protections they don’t have under federal law …

Watch wiretap law when listening in on disciplinary meetings

06/01/2007

Have you ever wished you could have a verbatim record of an HR conversation, just as a hedge against a “he said, she said” dispute in court? Don’t hide a tape recorder under your desk until you’ve considered this …