• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Q&A

Are milk expression breaks mandatory?

05/17/2010
Q. I know a number of states already have laws that require employers to provide unpaid breaks to nursing mothers to express breast milk. Are there any federal laws providing for similar requirements?

Must we grant dad intermittent FMLA leave after baby is born?

05/17/2010
Q. Do we have to grant an employee’s request for intermittent FMLA leave to care for his newborn son?

Do we have to compensate employees who answer pagers off-the-clock?

05/14/2010
Q. We require certain employees to be on-call for customer service needs that arise after hours. Employees carry a pager while on-call, and are expected to respond to pages right away. Do we have to pay our employees regular wages, or a minimum number of hours and overtime for being on call?

How far can we go to discipline employees for criticizing us online?

05/14/2010
Q. Under our social media policy, we prohibit employees from disparaging our company in any social medium. Two of our employees recently uploaded a video to YouTube in which they criticize our safety record and say we don’t pay good wages. Can we terminate these employees for this activity?

Can we refuse to hire member of National Guard because she lacks weekend scheduling flexibility?

05/14/2010
Q. Can we refuse to hire a qualified applicant who has told us her National Guard duty conflicts with some of the weekends she would be required to work? Employees in this job bid for rotating scheduled weekends under a union contract seniority system. The applicant’s schedule for Guard duty is not flexible.

Must we give extra pay for extra duties?

05/13/2010
Q. We are short-staffed and some of our employees have been assigned tasks beyond what they were hired to do. Some have said they want more money because of this. Do we have to increase their pay?

OK to use deductions to collect from employees?

05/11/2010
Q. If an employee owes us money, can we collect it through deductions from his wages?

Can laid-off, injured worker collect workers’ comp benefits?

05/11/2010
Q. We had to lay off an injured worker for economic reasons. He has not attempted to work for a year since that layoff. Will he be entitled to temporary benefits under the Florida Workers’ Compensation Act?

Can subcontractor’s employee sue prime contractor for work site negligence after injury?

05/11/2010
Q. Our company was a general contractor on a construction job. A subcontractor performed the electrical work. One of the subcontractor’s workers was injured while leaving the construction site. The subcontractor has denied compensability of the workers’ compensation claim, saying that the accident wasn’t within the course and scope of employment. The worker is now threatening to sue us for negligence. Can he do that?

How should we treat pay for mortgage loan officers under the FLSA?

05/11/2010
Q. Do we have to pay our mortgage loan officers overtime for any hours worked over 40 in a week?