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Illinois

Bias settlement chips $500,000 out of Ceisel Masonry

06/12/2009

Suburban Chicago-based Ceisel Masonry has settled a race and national-origin discrimination suit with the EEOC for $500,000.

Labor Department seeks more funds to boost enforcement

06/08/2009

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’ budget request to Congress includes funds to hire nearly 1,000 new employees, 670 of whom will be investigators. The plan calls for 200 more wage-and-hour Labor investigators and 160 additional OSHA gumshoes.

Bosses, staff atwitter about social networking sites

06/05/2009

Bosses and employees have very different views of employee privacy when it comes to posting on social networking sites, according to a recent Deloitte survey. Sixty percent of executives responding to the survey said they have a right to know how employees portray their companies online, but 53% of workers said their off-duty posts are none of their employers’ business.

Lawsuits on the rise: Audit your policies to prevent litigation

06/05/2009

The economy is a shambles, and employers are doing everything they can to stay in business. That includes terminations, salary and wage cuts and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk. Have your company’s personnel policies and practices had a checkup lately? A comprehensive audit is one of the easiest ways to spot problems.

Rules of the road: Know when to pay hourly employees for travel time

06/02/2009
You don’t need to pay nonexempt employees for their commuting time to and from the workplace. That’s simple. But what if such employees occasionally travel off-site (or even overnight) for work reasons?

Immigration crackdown targets employers—not illegal workers

05/27/2009

Fulfilling a pledge President Obama made during the 2008 campaign, the Department of Homeland Security has announced its immigration enforcement activities will target employers that hire undocumented workers instead of focusing on arresting and deporting the workers.

ADA: Consider what’s a ‘major life activity’

05/11/2009

Employees who cannot drive a motor vehicle due to a physical or psychological reason don’t automatically qualify for ADA protection. That’s because driving is not a major life activity. Therefore, an employee who claims that she panics when she has to get behind the wheel isn’t entitled to transfer to a nondriving position as a reasonable accommodation.

OK to factor in truthfulness when disciplining

05/11/2009

Sometimes, it isn’t the rule violation that makes a supervisor want to fire an employee, but the way the employee responds when confronted. Some will lie and deny what turns out to be obviously true. Others may ’fess up. You can leniently treat those who do the right thing, while punishing the others.

Illinois ranks 18th on business tax index

05/11/2009

Illinois came out better than average in the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s Business Tax Index for 2009, an annual assessment of the tax climate businesses and entrepreneurs face in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Overall, Illinois ranked 18th on a scale of 1 (least taxed) to 51 (most taxed).

Feel free to deny FMLA leave to employee who alters medical certification

05/11/2009

One of the biggest problems with the FMLA has always been the certification process. Until recently, employers weren’t allowed to call a health care provider whose form looked suspicious or whose diagnosis sounded suspect. Now, fortunately, employers can at least call the medical provider to ask whether the information on the form is accurate and get clarification on any unclear parts.