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Pennsylvania

Employee didn’t apply, so college couldn’t have discriminated

07/01/2007

When Harcum College in Bryn Mawr had an opening for a facilities supervisor, the department’s manager considered hiring an outside firm to run the unit …

Scandal at the top rocks Sterling Financial Corp.

07/01/2007

Five employees of Equipment Finance LLC, a subsidiary of Sterling Finan-cial Corp. of Lancaster, concealed credit delinquencies and falsified financing contracts in a sophisticated loan scheme that will cost Sterling an estimated $150 million …

EEOC gets go-Ahead for new age guidelines

07/01/2007

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in Philadelphia, has given the EEOC approval to implement a final rule allowing employers to give greater benefits to younger retirees than to Medicare-eligible retirees — without violating age-discrimination rules …

Handling workplace religious discrimination and harassment

07/01/2007

Few issues are as personal and potentially divisive as religion. Controversies generated by the “war on terror,” the abortion debate and other moral and ethical questions sometimes spill over into the workplace …

No work availability, no unemployment comp

07/01/2007

Q. I have an employee who hurt her neck, went to the doctor and never came back. However she has been in contact with me and keeps me updated. She has been out for three months, and had surgery a couple weeks after her injury. She told me she would not be returning for a few more weeks. In the meantime I received an unemployment claim form from her. We denied it because we did not let her go. Do any Pennsylvania laws state she can collect unemployment?

It’s the truth: no lie-detector tests

07/01/2007

Q. I want to know whether applicants have ever stolen from or been fired by a prior employer. Can I require them to take a lie-detector test?

Good faith and bad references

07/01/2007

Q. How do I give a reference for a worker I had to fire?

Use discipline instead of docking pay

07/01/2007

Q. Can I dock an employee’s pay for failing to meet a production quota?

No expectation of privacy on work PCs

07/01/2007

Q.  An employee recently complained that she had received pornographic e-mail messages and links to X-rated web sites from some of her co-workers. I want to review these messages — and other messages these guys have sent — to figure out exactly how large a problem I’m facing. Can I do this?

Time off for special-needs child

07/01/2007

Q. Our office secretary is the backbone of our company. Her son is in special education, and she periodically asks for time off to attend various school conferences and meetings about his progress. I don’t want to be stingy, but her absences really create problems for us. Do I have to allow her to take time off for these meetings?