Policies / Handbooks

Don’t impose grooming rules that weigh heavier on one gender

03/01/2005

Courts usually allow you to set grooming policies or appearance standards, particularly for employees who deal directly with customers. Just make sure you apply your rules evenhandedly across your work force. …

Cite Return-to-Work Tests in Drug/Alcohol Policy

03/01/2005

Q. One of our employees was recently in jail for traffic and drug violations. Before he returns to work, what guidelines can we follow to ensure that he’s drug-free? Will we be discriminating if we require a drug test before allowing him back on site, even though we didn’t require this test when he was hired? —M.Z., Washington

Use an ‘accuracy statement’ to sniff out applicants’ lies

03/01/2005

Issue: Creating a legal basis to reject (or fire) people who lie on their job applications.
Benefit: Providing a “statement of accuracy” on applications gives you strong legal standing against …

Comply with the new ethics-training rules in 7 easy steps

03/01/2005

Issue: New federal guidelines require all organizations to establish an ethics-training program.
Benefit: By taking the lead on this issue, you’ll cut the organization’s liability risk and impress the brass. …

Don’t get snagged in OSHA’s beefed-up inspection machine

03/01/2005

Issue: OSHA “dramatically” increased the number of its most serious kind of violations that it handed out in 2004.
Risk: Negative inspection results can trigger big fines and sales-killing publicity. …

You can exclude vacation pay from ‘Regular rate’

03/01/2005

Q. When we are figuring employees’ base pay for overtime calculations, can we exclude their vacation pay? —R.J.D., South Dakota

The new legal risk of overworking bilingual employees

03/01/2005

Issue: Overburdening employees because of their language abilities.
Risk: Relying too heavily on bilingual employees could spark a national-origin bias lawsuit.
Action: Remind supervisors to be on guard against …

Never sign HR documents for employees

03/01/2005

As part of his age-bias lawsuit, James Halloran claimed that his employer’s HR director signed Halloran’s signature to the bottom of a negative performance review. At trial, the company admitted to …

Jobs must be ‘virtually identical’ (not similar) to bring equal-pay claim

02/01/2005

Don’t be afraid to set different salary levels for employees who hold the same title. Different pay for the same job title is fine as long as you can prove that …

Disaster relief: Go online for best donation info, sources

02/01/2005

As parts of south Asia struggle to recover from the Dec. 26 tsunami, U.S. companies began mobilizing in huge numbers to send money and supplies.
Among the examples: Posting letters …