Archive for June 2020
Auto-Deducted Meal Breaks — Can They Be Done?
The practice has landed many in a costly trap. Companies with practices conducive to auto-deductions, however, may be able to use them without fear. At first glance, auto-deducting employees’ unpaid meal breaks from their pay may appear to be a good idea. Administratively, it’s simpler than requiring employees to clock out and clock back in, and…
Read MoreThe Nitty-Gritty of the FLSA’s Overtime Requirements
Imagine a pet store fired one of its workers. The worker, whom we’ll call Rich, is upset — no more paycheck and no more playtime with the animals. He decides to sit down with an attorney, who probes him about how the pet store paid him. Rich made $11 an hour and generally worked 40…
Read MoreFrom Overtime to Meal Breaks, HR’s FLSA Handbook
We have compiled eight stories that encapsulate the most important pieces of recent FLSA news and highlight the insights pay professionals need to understand them. When employers run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), costly remediation can follow. In 2019, a judge ordered Steak ‘n Shake to pay $7.7 million in liquidated damages to the…
Read MoreBack to Basics: A Retaliation Refresher
In this, our fifth and final installment of Back to Basics, we outline an anti-retaliation checklist. Case in Point – when supervisors sat down with Frank Brown to tell him he couldn’t take leave to attend a doctor’s appointment with his wife during the workday, he yelled and banged his fists on the table, court documents…
Read MoreBack to Basics: The Lowdown on GINA
As we continue our series on federal employment laws, here is the fourth of five installments for you to review. Case in point……..when Dennis Reynolds and Jack Lowe sued their employer for swabbing the insides of their cheeks to collect their DNA, they not only set themselves up to receive a $2.25 million jury verdict, but…
Read MoreBack to Basics: The Ins and Outs of The ADEA
As we continue our journey into the basics of federal employment laws, here is the third of five in our series, this time we’ll discuss the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Imagine a woman named Dorothy has worked at an interior design firm for the last 30 years. She started out a few days…
Read MorePerformance Management Evolves
Annual appraisals are falling out of favor as companies open lines of communication and provide regular feedback and coaching to workers. Most workers value candid discussions on workplace performance. They want regular and more-transparent performance feedback. But employees don’t believe that management has a good grasp of performance assessments and related guidance. Sometimes the review…
Read MoreBack to Basics: A Beginner’s ADA Road Map
Here is our second in a series of five columns dedicated to laying out the basics of federal employment laws. The ADA protects employees and applicants with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace, and employers must train managers to properly implement its requirements. Let’s start with a scenario. An ice cream parlor employee, whom we’ll…
Read MoreHR’s Anti-Discrimination Law Primer (Part 1)
Legislation from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Americans with Disabilities Act help define the boundaries of the U.S. workplace. Is it discriminatory to terminate a worker who can’t attend a Friday-night shift due to religious obligations? Could an employer demote someone who can’t carry out the essential functions of…
Read MoreAnswers to Wage and Hour Questions You’re Afraid to Ask as Workers Return
As states lift stay-at-home orders and businesses prepare to reopen their doors to employees, employers face a minefield of issues on the employment law front. One major area is wage and hour law, as many employers had to quickly implement layoffs, furloughs and wage cuts in the wake of the pandemic. As employers bring back…
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