• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly
Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory

Florida

Immigration: Know your ‘Border guard’ responsibilities

10/01/2007

Together, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 govern U.S. immigration policy. IRCA was amended in 1990. With each new law, employers gain new responsibilities. For each new employee hired, U.S. employers must complete a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The I-9 establishes the employee’s identity and his or her legal work status. Employers can hire only those who are eligible to work legally in this country …

On-Call time can be unpaid, even if you set restrictions on travel and activities

09/01/2007

When employees are on call, employers obviously want to avoid paying them for that time if they don’t do any actual work. The trick lies in knowing how to design on-call time …

Labor Department audit may trigger huge lawsuit

09/01/2007

You may think that by cooperating with a U.S. Labor Department audit under Fair Labor Standards Act, you’ll avoid a lawsuit. Unfortunately, the fact is that the audit may be only the beginning of your troubles—even if you go ahead and pay everything the department says you owe …

Don’t use attendance policy to avoid accommodations

09/01/2007

While attendance is an important goal, refusing to allow disabled employees some leeway is a sure way to the courtroom. Before you adopt a strict no-excuses tardiness policy, make sure you consider the special problems disabled employees may have. You can’t just declare that being on time is an essential function of every job and leave it at that …

‘Keep it confidential’ may let employers off liability hook

09/01/2007

You have a robust sexual harassment  policy, and everyone from the lowest level employee to the company president knows how it works. But what happens if an employee tells a supervisor about possible harassment and then asks him or her not to take it up with HR? …

Good news: Discussion of discipline that doesn’t name names is not defamation

09/01/2007

Supervisors can discuss discipline with co-workers if the situation warrants and not fear a defamation lawsuit. As long as the discussion is necessary for a legitimate business reason, such as preventing workplace violence or squelching rampant and erroneous rumors, the employer won’t be liable. Otherwise, mum’s the word …

Hinting employee should quit and offering severance? He still gets unemployment

09/01/2007

If you tell an employee you think it’s time for him or her to leave and offer a severance package as an inducement, you still may have to pay unemployment. That’s true even if the employee signs a statement saying he or she quit voluntarily in order to get the extra money …

Supreme Court to hear Florida FedEx drivers’ discrimination case

09/01/2007

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) case involving FedEx drivers. Employees in three states, including Florida, filed an ADEA suit against FedEx, citing policies designed to “drive out older workers” …

Manager wounded after guards were eliminated sues bank

09/01/2007

A SunTrust Bank manager, who was wounded during a bank robbery, has sued the bank because it had eliminated security guard positions for economic reasons just before the robbery …

Frostproof gets chilled after harassment heats up

09/01/2007

The city of Frostproof has a hot-to-trot city manager, according to allegations made by a former assistant city manager. The manager apparently sexually harassed her on a business trip to Tampa. After she complained, the manager and the city gave her the cold shoulder by suspending her, cutting her pay, changing her title and even trying to have her arrested …