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

HR Management

Definition of ‘work environment’ just got wider–so did your risk

03/01/2002
During a layover in Rome, two Delta flight attendants went shopping. Afterward, the male employee invited his female co-worker to his hotel room to sample a new wine. After drinking a …

Reject accommodation requests that harm business relationships

03/01/2002
Elizabeth Anderson, an office worker for a shipping firm, regularly ended her conversations and written communications with customers with the words, “Have a blessed day.” After her employer got a …

Ease strict noncompete pacts or risk wrongful discharge claim

03/01/2002
As part of a merger, Aetna U.S. Healthcare required employees to sign an agreement barring them from working for a competitor in the same state for two years or any competitor …

Capping Sick Pay

03/01/2002

Q. One of our managers has medical problems (she qualifies for the ADA and is in an age-protected class) and has used a significant amount of sick pay. Because we don’t have a defined sick pay policy, this manager is paid sick time whenever she’s out (full day or half day). How can we legally cap this? Is the development of a policy with specific hours our only alternative? —F.E., Georgia

Educate employees on new benefit-law changes

02/01/2002
Few workers seem aware that last year’s new tax law lets them save more in their 401(k) plans this year, perhaps because most companies haven’t told them. Only 30 percent …

Don’t fear ‘cybersmear’; go after employees who libel you online

02/01/2002
Research scientist Michelangelo Delfino was fired for harassing fellow workers at a medical lab. A co-worker, Mary Day, resigned two months later. Soon after, the pair used the Internet to unleash …

Tortoise to hare: EEOC speeds resolution of bias cases

02/01/2002
If an employee files a discrimination charge against you with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), don’t expect the case to hang in limbo. Reason: The EEOC is processing new discrimination …

Accept Worker’s Choice of I-9 Documents

02/01/2002

Q. Is it true that under a recently passed law, our company no longer can request copies of picture I.D. and Social Security cards? —A.G., Texas

Personnel files: What to keep, and where

02/01/2002

Q. What should we keep in personnel files? —G.T., Missouri

States up the ante in harassment liability

02/01/2002
Two pivotal Supreme Court decisions in 1998 gave employers a powerful new weapon to defend themselves when sued because of harassment by a supervisor. But recent rulings in a handful of …