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Q&A

An investigation is inevitable: Now what?

06/05/2015
At some point the question becomes not whether you need to dig deep into a case of workplace misconduct, but who you’re going to get for the task. Here are some guidelines.

What kinds of wellness programs exist?

05/29/2015
Q. What should I look for in a workplace wellness program for our company?

How could pre-employment test be discriminatory?

05/29/2015
Q. I am looking to hire new employees. Some applicants who did not qualify for the open positions are now threatening to sue, claiming that my pre-employment tests are discriminatory. What should I know about pre-employment tests?

When can we terminate during medical leave?

05/28/2015
Q. We have an employee who has been on workers’ comp for nine months. He’s not planning to have his fractured ankle operated on. HR wants to terminate him on the grounds that (after the operation) he will have been on FMLA for over a year. We realize the employee would still be carried by our insurer. Can we legally terminate an employee on workers’ comp after a year’s medical leave? — Vincent, Louisiana

Is it legal to make employees pay us back when their cash drawers come up short?

05/20/2015
Q. One of our employees recently had a shortage in his register at the end of her shift. Are we permitted to deduct the shortage from his wages? If not, is there anything we can do?

How does the Paid Sick Leave Law affect the information that must appear on paystubs?

05/20/2015
Q. We are trying to comply with California’s new paid sick leave law, but we are not sure what exactly needs to be included on the paystub.

Is it OK to simply refuse to hire sex offenders?

05/20/2015
Q. After narrowing our search to one candidate, we learned that the applicant may be listed as a registered sex offender. We would just rather not hire this applicant. Can we legally do that?

Can we require English-only on the job?

05/20/2015
Q. We want to require our employees to read, speak and write English at work. Is such a policy legal?

Must we pay for time spent preparing to work?

05/18/2015
Q. We have an employee who regularly comes into work a half-hour or more before her scheduled shift in order to get her work station ready and otherwise get herself set up for the day. This preparation time is important to the employee because she does not believe that she can meet the production requirements of her job without it. The employee has been told that she cannot start performing her actual job tasks until the start of her scheduled shift. Our new HR manager has advised that we must pay the employee for the time that she spends preparing for her shift, even though she had no approval to work during that time. Is that right?

May we remove a restaurant server from shifts because of sores on her face?

05/18/2015
Q. We have a server at one of our restaurants who has open sores on her face. She claims she can’t get a bandage to stick to her chin, leaving the sore uncovered. As a result, we have received a few customer complaints. May we remove the server from her shifts so that we do not lose business?