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HR Management

How far can our company go in prohibiting employees from smoking?

07/20/2009

Q. We are committed to providing a healthy and safe environment for our workforce. To that end, we strictly prohibit smoking on company property. Can we also prohibit employees from smoking during their lunch breaks and outside of work?

Does newly married worker need new W-4, I-9?

07/17/2009

Q. When an employee gets married, do we need a new W-4 to show her new name? What about a new I-9?

Are there ADA implications if we ask applicants to take personality tests?

07/17/2009

Q. We would like to administer personality tests to job applicants. Would this violate the ADA? A. Personality tests are a good example of the types of policies likely to be affected by the recently passed ADA Amendments Act of 2008 …

Jargon kills: Use plain language in policies

07/17/2009

When an El Pollo Loco restaurant manager filed a wage lawsuit, the company pointed to its handbook that said (in English and small type) “all employment-related disputes must be resolved through binding arbitration.” The manager argued that employees didn’t understand what they were signing and, therefore, the policy wasn’t valid.

Soda machine attacker wins workers’ comp

07/17/2009

Employees typically earn workers’ compensation for injuries incurred “in the course of work.” In Illinois, it seems, attacking the company vending machine is all in a day’s work. Vending-machine vigilantes are also covered in Oregon …

Can you ask applicants if they have relatives on staff?

07/17/2009

Q. On our applications, can we include a question that asks if applicants are related to any current employees?

Warn bosses: Pregnancy plans talk is off-limits

07/17/2009

Are some of your organization’s supervisors still stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to attitudes about pregnancy, childbirth and child care? If so, your organization may be a few off-base questions away from triggering a discrimination lawsuit. Remind managers and supervisors to keep their opinions on mothers and motherhood to themselves.

DOL pays $500 million to uranium plant victims

07/16/2009

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., processed more than one million tons of uranium during the Cold War, often without adequate safeguards for employees. Now the U.S. Department of Labor has paid out more than $500 million in benefits to plant employees and their survivors.

No haircut, no job: Was it discrimination?

07/15/2009

A jury will decide whether Wackenhut Inc. discriminated against Lord Osunfarian Xodus when the security firm turned him down for a security guard position. Xodus, a Chicagoan who practices Rastafari, claimed he lost out on the job after he refused to cut his dreadlocks for religious reasons.

HR CSI: How to conduct a post-mortem of a legal claim

07/14/2009

If you’ve ever been caught up in an employment lawsuit, chances are you couldn’t wait for it to be over. Yet every case presents a valuable opportunity to prevent future problems and improve HR effectiveness by conducting an “autopsy” of the claim.