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Texas

Under Texas law, do fired employees have a legal right to see their personnel files?

07/08/2009

Q. I recently fired an employee for performance problems. At the end of the termination meeting, he asked for a copy of his personnel file. Do I have to give discharged employees copies of their personnel files?

Flextime, early-out Fridays top employee summer wish list

07/06/2009

The luxury of time was on the minds of most employees who were surveyed by Robert Half International about the summer perks they most value. Leading the list was flextime, the choice of 38% of respondents. Next was shortened Fridays.

Choosing employees for promotion: A 6-step legal process

07/06/2009
HR people and managers are aware of the legal dangers in hiring outside applicants. But many forget that internal promotions also carry risks.

Competition for job openings heats up to record high

07/06/2009

Those few employers that are adding staff are sifting through more résumés than ever. Employers, on average, are evaluating 5.4 candidates for each of their openings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Miscalculated FMLA? Just let employee know

07/03/2009

It’s easy enough to do. While calculating an employee’s remaining FMLA leave, you make a mistake and tell the employee he has to return by a certain day when in fact his leave expires earlier. How can you fix the problem if you discover it while the employee is out on leave? Just let him know that you made a calculation mistake and give him the correct information—before he has to return.

Congress considers legislation mandating paid sick leave

06/26/2009

Millions of employees would be eligible for seven days of paid sick leave annually if the Healthy Families Act, recently introduced in Congress, becomes law. A coalition of HR and business groups vowed to fight the bill, saying it would “force companies to increase layoffs, reduce wages and cut important employee benefits.”

Better heed Ledbetter: Audit pay policies to ensure equal pay

06/16/2009

Under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, each paycheck that unfairly pays a worker less than it should is a discriminatory act. Now is the time to audit your pay policies. Involve your attorneys—to take advantage of attorney-client privilege protection while you correct any discriminatory practices you uncover.

Labor Department seeks more funds to boost enforcement

06/08/2009

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’ budget request to Congress includes funds to hire nearly 1,000 new employees, 670 of whom will be investigators. The plan calls for 200 more wage-and-hour Labor investigators and 160 additional OSHA gumshoes.

Lawsuits on the rise: Audit your policies to prevent litigation

06/05/2009

The economy is a shambles, and employers are doing everything they can to stay in business. That includes terminations, salary and wage cuts and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk. Have your company’s personnel policies and practices had a checkup lately? A comprehensive audit is one of the easiest ways to spot problems.

Rules of the road: Know when to pay hourly employees for travel time

06/02/2009
You don’t need to pay nonexempt employees for their commuting time to and from the workplace. That’s simple. But what if such employees occasionally travel off-site (or even overnight) for work reasons?