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Q&A

Polls open, time off?

05/28/2008
Q. Must I allow my employees time off to vote? …

Any requirement to offer vacation?

05/28/2008
Q. My company does not have a vacation policy. Should it? …

What does N.C.’s civil rights act provide?

05/28/2008
Q. Does North Carolina have a state civil rights act that applies to private employers? …

Are breaks required in North Carolina?

05/28/2008
Q. Must a North Carolina employer allow its employees certain rest or meal periods? …

Requirements for maintaining payroll records

05/28/2008
Q. What payroll records must my company keep under North Carolina law?…

Concurrently running FMLA leave, vacation time and short-Term disability

05/27/2008
Q. Our policy requires an employee out on FMLA leave to run any accrued vacation or sick time concurrently with FMLA leave until that time is used up. (At that point, the FMLA leave becomes unpaid.) We also have a short-term disability (STD) policy that kicks in after seven consecutive days and lasts up to eight weeks. A pregnant employee recently requested 10 weeks of FMLA leave, starting upon the birth of her child. She currently has 3½ weeks of accrued vacation time. Can we require her to use up all of her vacation time once she goes out on maternity leave, even though she is also receiving STD payments? …

Can we discipline an employee for secretly recording workplace conversations?

05/27/2008
Q. Some employees discovered that a co-worker has been secretly recording conversations with them and some supervisors. One of them brought it to our attention after he grew suspicious that the employee was digging for information about some employment decisions we had made. Several employees have complained about the invasion of their privacy. The company president’s first reaction was to have the employee arrested, but I’m not sure he broke any laws. Our policies prohibit general harassment, but do not specifically address clandestine recordings. Can we discipline this employee? Should we contact police? …

What should we include in our updated employee handbook?

05/27/2008
Q. Our company is looking to revise and update its employee handbook. This will be the first update in several years. Is there anything specific that we should focus on to make sure that we are up-to-date? …

Do we have to hand over personnel file to employee we fired?

05/23/2008
Q. We fired an employee based on an eyewitness account of theft. We documented that report and put it in the former employee’s personnel file. That person has now hired an attorney and asked to see the file. We feel that we have no obligation to respond. Do we have to turn it over without a subpoena?

After learning of possible serious medical condition, what are our legal obligations?

05/23/2008
Q. An employee told us he has a bad hernia. He wants to wait a couple months to have the operation, since it requires six weeks’ recovery. He does some lifting in his job. Yesterday, he had to go home early because he was in pain. Now that we are aware of his condition, what’s our liability? And what should we do?