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The U.S. Department of Labor has revised the poster that employers are required to post in the workplace to inform employees of their rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). USERRA sets out employment reinstatement and benefits rights for service members, and it applies to all employers regardless of size, including […]
A group of our employees has asked us to sponsor a softball team this spring. Management is all for it, but asked me to dig a bit into what problems might arise. Can you help? Are there workers’ comp issues? Liability if someone gets hurt? And what about alcohol?
We’re considering moving to a Paid Time Off (PTO) program instead of our current separate bundles of vacation, sick time, and personal leave, and we have a bunch of questions. When companies make this switch, do they just add up the number of days and then lump them all together? Impose any restrictions on taking […]
Can you clarify for me what a probationary period means in terms of our legal rights as an employer? I thought that if we had a 90-day probationary period, that meant we could easily terminate a new employee without any legal hassles. But I went to a conference, and the speaker said that a) we […]
When our employees go on leave, such as FMLA leave, we adjust their appraisal dates to reflect the leave time. For example, if they take 3 months of leave, they get their appraisal at the 15-month point rather than the usual 12 months. Now some of them are saying that the FMLA says that leave […]
Several employee groups—firefighters, sheriffs, police officers, guards, and forest rangers—filed class action suits against their public-sector employers in California, charging that they weren’t fully compensated for the costs of purchasing, replacing, cleaning, and maintaining required work uniforms, in violation of Labor Code Section 2802. This provision requires an employer to reimburse employees for all necessary […]
Renee Terri Henderson, a bus driver with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), has plead guilty to charges that she submitted fraudulent workers’ comp claims. As a result of claims Henderson filed with the MTA, she collected weekly total temporary disability benefits of $386.65 for nine months. However, an investigation by the California Department […]
Fraudulent workers’ comp claims cost employers millions every year. And while fraudulent claims can often be hard to prove, there are some red flags it can pay to look out for. Possible indicators of employee fraud include:
The benefits of using nonemployee workers such as independent contractors are obvious: you don’t have to provide a contractor with expensive employee benefits, and you retain greater flexibility to quickly alter your workforce as needs change. But if you make a mistake and incorrectly classify an employee as an independent contractor, the consequences can be […]
Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of benefits recently drafted a memo to the board of directors proposing ways for the company to save on health care costs by attracting a “healthier, more productive workforce.” Among other things, the memo suggested that all jobs at Wal-Mart be redefined to include some level of physical activity–such as requiring […]