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Disability Discrimination in the Workplace Costs Employers

It’s no secret that discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims based on disability cost employers plenty—and it’s not just the dollars awarded in damages (although, admittedly, some jury awards are eye-popping). It’s the expense of litigation. It’s the time employers must spend defending claims. It’s the bad publicity for the company. It’s the damage to employee […]

Ask the Expert: Under the FCRA, can a company do annual and/or random background checks on current employees if it has their consent on file?

December 20, 2010 As you are aware, the ability to do a background check on current employees will depend on whether such a check is authorized by the consent for signed by the employees. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), credit reporting and other investigative agencies may provide background financial and personal information […]

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‘Unlawful’ Overtime Rule Temporarily Blocked

A federal district court temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) overtime rule November 22, just days before it was scheduled to take effect. The judge who issued the order called the regulation “unlawful” and said such actions should be left to Congress.

Ask the Expert: Military Leave—Paid or Unpaid?

We have an employee that just came back from military leave. He did not present orders to HR or payroll and turned in a timecard with “5 days Military Leave” written across the week he was gone. Payroll paid him for that week and deducted 40 hours of leave. The employee came back stating that […]

Correctly Classifying IT Employees As Exempt or Non-exempt

by Kara Shea I’m often asked to give advice about whether employees are exempt from the overtime requirements of federal law. I have to say that it’s a pretty easy call about 70 percent of the time. But then there’s that troubling 30 percent of jobs that give my clients (and, truth be told, yours […]

How to Promote Discretionary Effort at Work

When a business hires an employee, it typically provides a job description that has a set of responsibilities and expectations. Similarly, during regular performance reviews, employees are evaluated based on how well they met certain criteria. These are the baseline requirements of the job. But we have all seen employees who go above and beyond […]

Pros and Cons of Vaccine Incentives

Now that the COVID-19 vaccine is becoming more available, employers are thinking of ways to ensure their employees are vaccinated. This can be useful not only to keep all employees safe but also to give the public a sense of safety when frequenting the facility.

5 Signs Your Employees Need Refresher Training

Refresher training is just as important as initial training. One could even argue that it may be more important than initial training because it increases employee productivity rates and lowers operational costs related to rework and unsatisfied customers. And a lack of sufficient training can lead to many negative effects. So, how do you know if […]