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Pennsylvania

Attendance discipline needs care if employee qualifies for FMLA leave

10/01/2007

Q. An employee of ours has attendance problems. Before we could counsel her on the attendance problems, she was approved for intermittent FMLA to care for her elderly mother. While she has taken FMLA days for her mother, she also continues to have attendance problems unrelated to her FMLA leave. Can we proceed with counseling and possible disciplinary actions while she is under FMLA? …

Investigating suspected employee theft

10/01/2007

Q. I think one of our employees is stealing. What are the proper steps to take to handle this situation? …

Saying ‘No’ to the office beggar

10/01/2007

Q. An employee in our office regularly asks co-workers for small amounts of money and then never pays them back. We’ve all stopped giving him money, but he continues to ask, which makes many people feel uncomfortable. How do we get him to stop? …

Under what circumstances can an employee challenge a termination?

10/01/2007

Q. If an employee believes he has been terminated unfairly, does he have a legal right to challenge the termination? …

Can you prove that you posted FMLA notice ‘Conspicuously’?

09/01/2007

Employers must post a copy of the approved federal FMLA poster “conspicuously” in the workplace. Neglecting to do so opens the door for lawsuits if you discipline employees for absences that would have been covered by FMLA. Those employees may claim they didn’t ask for FMLA leave because they weren’t familiar with the law …

Customer complaint can be basis for discipline

09/01/2007

Employers can’t cater to every customer’s whim, but they can respond to complaints about employee behavior without worrying that a judge will second-guess their decision …

‘Blind’ applications help defend against frivolous lawsuits

09/01/2007

If the people reviewing employment applications don’t know the race of the candidates, they can’t discriminate for or against any particular applicant. That’s why you should consider using a “blind” application process …

You can discuss absenteeism without violating disability law

09/01/2007

Employees with disabilities may be absent more than other employees. That doesn’t mean you can’t reasonably ask about those absences. In fact, courts have ruled that it’s not necessarily harassment even when supervisors land hard on disabled employees who are frequently no-shows …

Do you know whom you’re disciplining?

09/01/2007

When it comes to discrimination, your best defense is treating everyone absolutely equally. That’s tough to do without a central HR tracking system. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Make sure you note any problems (and praise) in each employee’s official file. Then, do regular audits—pulling out data on age, sex, national origin and race—to tabulate types of problems and any discipline levied …

E-mail is forever—So be careful what you say

09/01/2007

An ill-worded e-mail, unlike a phone conversation, can come back to haunt you. Deleting e-mail doesn’t mean it’s gone forever, or that a recipient hasn’t saved, printed or forwarded it. Plus, there are plenty of computer experts out there who can recreate or retrieve deleted e-mail messages. The best policy is to assume that whatever is in an e-mail can be used against you in a court of law …