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Archive of: Human Resources

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Don’t Let Your Harassment Policy Gather Dust on a Shelf, by David McClurg

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Human Resources / Comments

Some employers include a good anti-harassment policy in their Employee Handbook, and feel they’ve done all they need to do to protect themselves against sexual or racial harassment claims. In truth, a good policy is just the first step in a successful program to insulate an employer from harassment claims.In Mann v. Staples, Inc., a female employee received unwelcome comments about her appearance and physique, ...

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NLRB WANTS TO CHANGE BACKPAY AWARDS, by Roger L. Pettit

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Human Resources / Comments

On July 21, 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) rendered a decision in Latino Express, Inc. and related cases.  (13-CA-046528, 13-CA-046529 and 13-CA-046634.)  The Board found that Latino Express violated Section 8(a)(1) and 3 of the Act in several ways and as pertinent to this post, the Board found the respondent discriminatorily discharged 2 employees.The Administrative Law Judge that heard the case awarded backpay to the discharged employees.  The ...

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Critical Issues for Employers in the Wake of the Supreme Court Decision Upholding the Affordable Care Act, by David A. McClurg

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

Now that the dust has settled on the Supreme Court’s decision largely upholding the constitutionality of the “Affordable Care Act,” or “Obamacare” as most Republican candidates are calling it, some of the important factors that employers should keep in mind for the remainder of 2012 and 2013 include:1.         Small businesses with 25 or less employees that pay average annual wages below $50,000 and pay at least 50% of the total ...

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Employers, Take a Good Look at your Social Media Policy

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Human Resources, Technology / Comments

As social media participation increases, particularly Facebook and Twitter, it’s becoming more important for employers to have a social media policy in place.  Equally important however, is ensuring that the policy isn’t overbroad and violates the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”).  Last month the NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon issued his third report  detailing seven cases of illegal or overbroad employer social media policies that violated the Act.The ...

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Supreme Court: Pharmaceutical Reps Not Entitled to Overtime Pay under the FLSA

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Human Resources / Comments

In Christopher et. al. v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. the Supreme Court ruled Monday that pharmaceutical representatives aren’t entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (Click on the this link for the opinion: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-204.pdf).  The FLSA overtime requirement does not apply to workers who are considered “outside salesmen” under 29 U.S.C. 213(a)(1).  For the discussion of the definition of “outside salesmen”, see page 1 of ...

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Thinking Outside the Box: Can Unusual Pro-Employee Policies Benefit the Workplace? By Roger L. Pettit

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

I recently received a blog article entitled “Counter Intuitive Company Policies That Actually Work”.   Please click on the following link to read the article:  http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/20-counterintuitive-company-policies-that-actually-work/.   In this and future posts, I intend to address a number of the twenty (20) unusual workplace policies from my perspective.  I welcome your comments, pro and con, with respect to the viability of the policies.The first “Counter Intuitive” policy is the “No Vacation” policy.  The ...

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Rules Requiring that Injured Employees Demonstrate 100% Recovery Before Being Allowed to Return to Work Likely Violate the ADA

Posted by Attorney David McClurg in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

In the past, some employers have required that an injured employee provide a doctor’s slip indicating that they could return to work “without restrictions” or that they were “100% healed” from the injury before the employee would be allowed to return to work. Although employees denied permission to return to work based on such rules sometimes pursued claims against their employers asserting that the employer improperly “regarded” them as disabled, ...

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Ten New Year’s Resolutions for Human Resource Professionals

Posted by Attorney David McClurg in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management, Labor Relations / Comments

1)         I will focus on improved documentation to support employment decisions. 2)         I will routinely engage employees with physical or mental impairment in an interactive process to evaluate potential accommodations. 3)         I will ask job applicants about potential accommodations (but never about the existence or nature of any disability) ONLY if:a) I reasonably believe the candidate has a need for accommodation because of an obvious disability;b) I reasonably believe the candidate may ...

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THE FORBIDDEN PHRASES DON’T WORK

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

In my last post I explained that using the forbidden phrases when terminating employees can foster lawsuits.  Those phrases will never satisfy an opposing counsel or a fact finder in a lawsuit brought by disgruntled employees.  The following fictionalized cross examinations illustrate why employers may wish they had been more forthright in the first place: Question:“Did you give Mr. Smith a reason for ...

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THE FORBIDDEN PHRASES: How to increase the chance of litigation over an employee’s termination.

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

Unless the employee is covered under a Collective Bargaining Agreement or a contract for a definite term, most states, including Wisconsin, consider the employment relationship to be at-will, i.e. an employer may terminate an employee without a defined level of “cause”.  While many factors may contribute to the decision to terminate an employee, being honest and forthright in the termination process is an important consideration.No employee is ever terminated without ...

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