• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly
Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory

Pennsylvania

Can we ban drinking and driving company car?

02/22/2012
Q. We recently learned that an employee who drives a company vehicle is stopping on the way home for a few drinks. Should we notify all employees that if they use drugs or alcohol while driving a company vehicle, they will be fired?

For new mom with very ill baby, what are our FMLA and unemployment obligations?

02/22/2012
Q. A long-standing employee recently took FMLA leave to give birth, but her son has many medical complications. She exhausted her eligibility under our disability carrier and isn’t eligible for long-term disability because she herself is not disabled. We want her back, but she can’t commit to even 20 hours a week. What are our obligations under the FMLA, and would our employee be entitled to unemployment compensation if we terminate her?

What Pennsylvania employers need to know about medical marijuana

02/22/2012
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized some form of medical marijuana use, even though the federal government continues to classify marijuana as an illegal drug. Pennsylvania hasn’t yet enacted a medical marijuana law, but that could change thanks to legislation that has been introduced in the General Assembly.

Morgan Truck Body collides with $93,000 in OSHA fines

02/22/2012
Morgantown-based Morgan Truck Body has been cited for 24 safety and health violations at a factory in Georgia. The citations result from OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting Program, which scrutinizes industries with high occupational illness and injury rates.

Matrix workers clean up with EEOC bias settlement

02/22/2012
Matrix Integrated Facility Management, one of the Philadelphia area’s largest commercial janitorial firms, will pay $450,000 to 15 former employees to settle EEOC race discrimination and retaliation charges.

Panera Bread gets double helping of bias litigation

02/22/2012
A Panera Bread franchisee faces an additional lawsuit charging racial discrimination in the wake of a manager’s suit that claims he was fired for refusing to follow a racist directive.

No promotion postings? You’re courting a bias suit

02/22/2012
Employers that don’t post internal promotion opportunities are risking unnecessary lawsuits. The fact is, when jobs aren’t posted, employees can sue over the lost opportunity to apply.

Beware too much control over contractor! You could be liable for unemployment comp

02/22/2012

You may think that a long-term arrangement with an independent contractor to provide professional services will never be considered an employment relationship. But that’s not true if you exert too much control over the way the work is done. And according to a recent Commonwealth Court decision, it doesn’t take all that much control.

Employee acting as her own lawyer? Prepare for a long slog through the legal system

02/22/2012
Ten years of litigation has finally come to an end now that a federal appeals court has tossed the last claims of an employee who acted as her own lawyer.

More union members in 2011, thanks to private-sector gains

02/22/2012

Changing economic conditions and favorable rule-making in Washington helped U.S. union membership increase to 14.8 million workers last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Organized labor gained 49,000 new members in 2011.