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

Hiring

Not rehiring FMLA leave-taker? Document why

02/16/2010

Employees who run out of FMLA leave and are fired under a policy requiring mandatory dismissal for excessive absences may be invited to apply for other open positions when they recover enough to work. Be careful how you handle those reapplications, especially if one of the terminated employees was off because she was pregnant and ran out of leave before being able to return.

How much should I worry about employees using social networking sites?

02/16/2010

Q. I heard that Facebook use is really picking up, but I don’t think most of our employees are that tech-savvy. Should I be concerned about my employees accessing social networking sites while at work?

E-Verify now legal in Illinois … if employers play by new rules

02/16/2010

Illinois’ long-standing mistrust of the federal government’s E-Verify employment eligibility verification program has now been codified into a new law meant to make sure the online system can’t be used to harm workers. Employers that use E-Verify must now complete the Illinois Department of Labor’s “E-Verify Employer Attestation Form.”

In hiring, don’t overvalue interview skills; courts question subjective decision-making

02/15/2010

Does your selection process rely heavily on how applicants handle themselves during job interviews? If so, be aware that courts are often suspicious of such inherently subjective decision-making. That’s why it’s best to document how objective qualifications—such as education and experience—counted for more than the fleeting impression of an interview.

Lawsuit-proof hiring: Post every job opening

02/12/2010

Here’s one of the simplest ways to avoid failure-to-hire litigation: Adopt a uniform system for posting openings—and then stick with that system. If you do, employees won’t be able to claim later that they didn’t know about an opening and would have applied if only they knew.

Firm teams up with Pentagon to hire military spouses

02/11/2010

When New York-based telephone directory-assistance provider kgb needed to hire part-timers who would work from their homes, it put the word out to the spouses of deployed military. The organization found them by partnering with the Army Spouse Employment Partnership, a program created in 2002 to help military spouses find jobs.

Is it legally risky to refuse to hire people who have been arrested?

02/09/2010

Q. I am considering putting a policy in place to prohibit hiring any job applicant found to have an arrest record. Are there any legal risks?

Control key to independent contractor status

02/09/2010

Employers sometimes use independent contractors as a way to lower their benefits and other labor costs. But that kind of economizing can turn out to be quite expensive if a court decides that the independent contractor is really an employee. One of the deciding factors in such cases is how much independence a worker has to control his work. The greater the employer’s control, the greater the likelihood that the “independent contractor” is really an employee.

What legal hoops must we jump through if we conduct background checks on applicants?

02/09/2010

Q. I’ve never required background checks on any job applicants. To get a better understanding of whom we’re hiring, I’ve retained a professional screening company to begin vetting our candidates for things such as criminal convictions. Are there any specific protocols we should be following?

Firm skids on ICE, eventually collides with EEOC

02/09/2010

Things started out rocky last November for American Building Maintenance (ABM), a nationwide janitorial services conglomerate, when ICE agents busted it for employing 1,200 undocumented workers. Bad turned to worse in January when the EEOC filed a complaint against ABM, alleging race discrimination against black workers hired last fall through a nonprofit Minneapolis employment agency called Emerge.