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03/31/2008
New FMLA Leave Rules for Servicemembers' Relatives: What Employers Need to Know
04/2/2008
DOL's New Proposed FMLA Regs Explained
04/03/2008
Your Employee Has Cancer: Discrimination, Productivity, FMLA, and ADA Answers
04/08/2008
Pregnancy in the Workplace: Manage FMLA, ADA, and PDA Issues
04/10/2008
How to Say "You're Fired" Without a Legal Firestorm
04/16/2008
Surviving the First 90 Days: Keep Your New-Hires With Effective On-Boarding
04/17/2008
When Religion Comes to Work: How to Legally Accommodate Your Diverse Workforce
04/24/2008
Weathering Tough Economic Times: Strategies
for HR
04/30/2008
Supreme Court's 401(k) Ruling: What It Mean
to Employers
05/01/2008
Managing Employees with Mental Disorders: Unique Challenges, Best Practices
05/08/2008
Dealing with Doctors: Medical Certification Challenges for FMLA, Workers' Comp, ADA
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Northern Exposure: employment law for U.S. companies with operations in Canada
What company should employ your expats in Canada?
When you send an employee to work in Canada, what company should be named as the employer? Your U.S. company? A Canadian subsidiary or affiliate? Perhaps your parent company?
Why is this important?
It’s important to be clear about which company is the legal employer because this may determine many of the employee’s rights and entitlements, such as:
Read on
You can sign up for the free e-zine at www.hrhero.com/enewsletter.cgi. You also can find past articles from the e-zine on the Northern Exposure blog at www.hrheroblogs.com/northernexposure.
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HR Tool: Employers Forum
One of the most dynamicparts of the Employment Law Letter subscription package is posting rights to the Employers Forum at HRhero.com. This lively online virtual community is made up of thousands of HR professionals nationwide, all eager to give helpful advice whenever you face a challenging situation at work.
The Employers Forum has proven so popular that we've broken it into area-of-interest "sub-forums," making it even easier and faster to get answers from HR professionals who've faced the same situation. We even have a recipes sub-forum, if you have no idea what to do with that eggplant going south in your fridge.
How to access:
1. Log into HRhero.com Subscribers Area: www.HRhero.com/lc/
2. In right column, under "Your Resources " click Employers Forum
IN THIS ISSUE - March 21, 2008
- Overtime issues in a technological society
- Pets in the office
- Perspective key to dealing with generational divide
- Making workers pay for poor health: Is it legal?
- Succession planning and age discrimination
- Guns in the workplace
- Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World
- More on truth Is stranger than fiction
Read HR Hero Line online: www.HRhero.com/hl/032108.html
HR News and Advice
Overtime issues in a technological society
Excerpted from West Virginia Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
In a society that's increasingly dependent on technology, it's important to take a moment to consider some of the problems that could arise for technologically savvy employees who are allowed to work from home. Some employees who work away from the office by using devices like laptop computers, BlackBerries, cell phones, and pagers will claim they worked overtime when using those devices. Additionally, with more and more employees "telecommuting," it can become increasingly difficult to monitor an employee's overtime.
The following is a brief review of the overtime laws and tips for helping you prevent paying unauthorized overtime to employees who work away from the office. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn't place limitations on the number of hours an employee can work in any week, but employees covered by the Act must be paid overtime wages for any hours worked in excess of the 40-hour workweek.
Pets in the office
Excerpted from Virginia Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of DiMuroGinsberg, P.C.
by Hillary J. Collyer
According to the U.S. Humane Society, there are approximately 65 million dogs in 39 percent of U.S. households. With such a high number of furry friends in our homes, it's hardly surprising that taking our dogs to work has become a growing trend. According to a 2006 survey conducted by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA), nearly one in five U.S. companies allows pets at work.
Benefits of pets in the workplace
At a time when there is an increased emphasis on balancing work-life issues, establishing a pet-friendly policy is one way for employers to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance. Small to medium-sized businesses, particularly technology firms and creative agencies, have been the most receptive to allowing dogs at work. This is due in part to the fact that the fewer employees you have, the easier it is to reach a consensus on an appropriate workplace policy.
Dog-friendly policies can improve staff morale and camaraderie and encourage employees to work longer hours (since they don't have to rush home to let their dogs out at the end of the day). Also, a company with a dog-friendly policy will be more attractive to a dog lover. The APPMA survey indicated that having pets in the workplace offers a number of benefits, such as creating a more productive work environment, lowering stress and anxiety, improving overall emotional and physical health, decreasing employee absenteeism, and making employees more willing to work overtime.
About now would probably be a good time for me to insert a disclaimer that I am somewhat biased in regard to this issue ? I've been bringing my 11- year-old Lhasa apso to the office for the past three years. Hence, I can personally attest to the decreased stress and anxiety as a result of the presence of my dog in the office.
Did You Know...
Approximately 40% of the more than one million Americans diagnosed with some form of cancer each year are working-age adults, according to the American Cancer Society.
What if an employee came to you and told you she had cancer? How can you ensure productivity and protect the worker from discrimination? What FMLA and ADA issues come into play?
Get the answers to these questions and much more by registering for the all-new HR Hero audio conference, Your Employee Has Cancer: Discrimination, Productivity, FMLA, and ADA Answers. In just 90 minutes we'll cover what questions you're allowed to ask the employee without violating her privacy, accommodation concerns, insurance/benefits issues, and more.
Read on for more information...
Perspective key to dealing with generational divide
Excerpted from Diversity Insight, a free e-zine from HR Insight
Here’s something you’ve probably never heard (or said): “Man, those kids in the younger generation really have their noses to the grindstone; they work much harder than we ever did.”
Fact is, there always has been a divide between generations. Each generation clashes and reacts to the one before it. Consider this analogy: The Internet is to Generation Y what rock ‘n’ roll was to the Boomers. Both are considered by the older generations to be fast and dangerous and therefore scary. Both shape attitudes, unify, and give identity to those involved. Just like the Boomers’ parents couldn’t understand what all that loud music was about, the Boomers now can have a hard time relating to the global community Generation Y has found on the Web.
Sign up for the free Diversity Insight e-zine
Making workers pay for poor health: Is it legal?
Excerpted from Virginia Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of DiMuroGinsberg, P.C.
by Jennifer S. Kessler
Employers are frustrated with the spiraling costs of health care for their workers. Health care costs become even more frustrating when you consider that according to the New England Journal of Medicine, preventable illnesses make up approximately 80 percent of all illnesses and generate 90 percent of all health care costs.
Read on (Subscribers only)
Succession planning and age discrimination
Excerpted from Utah Employment Law Letter and written by attorneys at the law firm of Wood Crapo LLC
A recent decision handed down by the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gives cause for concern to employers that approach employees about their intentions regarding retirement. Essentially, the court decided that under the circumstances of this case, it was up to a jury to determine whether the inquiries regarding the employee's age and retirement intentions were merely succession planning or discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
Read on (Subscribers only)
The Word on Employment Law
Guns in the workplace
What does the March 18 argument before the U.S. Supreme Court about whether a District of Columbia ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment have to do with the workplace and employment law? Nothing directly, but perhaps a lot indirectly.
According to news sources following this case, the majority of the Court seemed to indicate from their questions and comments during the argument that the Second Amendment applies to an individual’s right to carry a weapon as well as a militia’s right to bear arms. If this turns out to be the Court’s ruling, then it’s almost a certainty that state legislatures will begin enacting a wave of gun legislation, some of which will have an impact on the workplace. In fact, some states have already started their attempts to do that.
In most states right now, even when citizens have the right to carry a concealed weapon if they have a permit, employers are able to ban weapons from the workplace, which includes company parking lots. Challenges are being made to the right of employers to do that. This legislation started with attempts to allow employees to keep a gun in cars in company parking lots. If the Court rules as predicted, there will be legislation that attempts to allow employees to carry weapons into the workplace, as long as the employees have permits for the weapons.
Read more of John's post on employment law and HR humor
Resources for Humans: best books for HR
Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World
A review by Wendi Watts
While most books about business tell you how to make more money for yourself or your business, or to develop skills that will make you a better employee, manager, or employer, Bill Clinton’s newest book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, offers ideas on how you can give your time, talent, and other resources to make the world a better place. So can a book about giving really be a business book? In a word, yes.
Read other reviews and find books picks for HR professionals
That's What She Said
More on truth is stranger than fiction
In the truth is stranger than fiction category, I recently re-discovered a case in which a Hooter’s waitress in Florida sued her employer for tricking her about a prize in a beer-selling contest. The waitress thought she would win a Toyota if she sold the most beer. However, after she won the contest, her manager blind-folded her; led her to the parking lot; and presented her with a plastic “toy Yoda” character from Star Wars. The manager claimed the prank was an April Fool’s joke. Funny, right? Apparently, the employee didn’t think so– she sued her employer, a Hooter’s franchisee, for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.
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