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Ohio

Ohio ranks 10th on business tax index

06/05/2009

Ohio ranked among the nation’s most business-friendly states in the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s (SBEC) Business Tax Index for 2009. The SBEC annually assesses the tax climates for business and entrepreneurs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Beware incentive plans that deduct pay from exempt employees

06/05/2009

The FLSA sets strict rules for who can be classified as an exempt employee not entitled to overtime pay. One of those is the so-called salary-basis test. Exempt employees must be paid the same salary regardless of the quality or quantity of their work in any given pay period. In other words, employers can’t make deductions from pay for poor work.

Use progressive discipline—or prepare to pay unemployment even if conduct was outrageous

06/05/2009

Ohio employees who are discharged for just cause aren’t entitled to unemployment compensation payments. But Ohio courts frequently hesitate to cut off unemployment benefits for one-time conduct that may be outrageous—as long as the employee doesn’t have a history of past disciplinary problems and the employer has a progressive discipline program it didn’t use.

Dayton gets unlikely help from union when courts try to force settlement

06/05/2009

Sometimes, the HR business makes for strange bedfellows. Consider what happened in one recent case when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Dayton, claiming its rules for hiring police officers and firefighters unfairly screened out black candidates. The police and firefighters union stepped in to intervene in the litigation.

Consider challenging disability application after discharge

06/05/2009

Public employees who become disabled may be entitled to disability retirement. But if the employee’s disability application coincides with discharge, consider aggressively challenging the application and asking for further medical review.

Government employers can limit when employees take flextime

06/05/2009

Some government employers let employees arrange their schedules to allow flexible hours. Changing those terms in a union environment may be an unfair labor practice. However, in one recent case, an Ohio appeals court upheld such a change because the union contract didn’t address the practice.

Chrysler prepares for recovery by offering worker buyouts

06/05/2009

The cost of retirement benefits are one of the flies in the ointment of Chrysler’s plan to close eight plants—including its Twinsburg, Ohio, stamping facility. To help cut long-term expenses, the bankrupt company plans to offer lump-sum buyout payments to some members of the United Auto Workers.

Who takes Chrysler’s workers’ comp problems?

06/05/2009

As Chrysler sought a buyer, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray wondered how much it would cost the state in workers’ compensation payouts. Chrysler self-insures its workers’ compensation, but Fiat may not want to assume that obligation. What happens to workers receiving benefits then?

Use TEAM approach to stay union-free in a union-friendly world

06/05/2009

By now, nearly everyone in HR has heard of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), under which unions would have a much easier time becoming certified. Because unions have become more aggressive and more successful at unionization even without the EFCA, I recommend that employers adopt the TEAM approach to keeping their workplaces union-free.

Can we make employees pay for work uniforms?

06/05/2009

Q. Are there any laws that prohibit me from charging my employees for their mandatory work uniforms?