Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
October 4, 2010 This is really a matter of company policy. Many companies maintain an official personnel file with copies of resumes, applications, offer letters, performance appraisals, training records, salary increases, etc. In addition, the official file should contain any contract or written agreement between the employee and the employer (such as a noncompete agreement), […]
President Obama has named GE CEO Jeff Immelt as head of the new President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The move is a definite switch from the President’s previous Economic Recovery Advisory Board, lead by Paul Volcker. Now, the focus is not on repair, but on creating new jobs. Immelt knows a little something about […]
October 24, 2009 As you know, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, exempt employees must receive their full salary for any week in which they perform any work, without regard to the number of days or hours worked. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. Sickness and disability deductions are an area of confusion […]
December 17, 2010 Determining whether an employer has 50 employees for purposes of the FMLA can be complex. As you are aware, under the FMLA regulations, an employer covered by FMLA is any person engaged in commerce or in any industry or activity affecting commerce, who employs 50 or more employees for each working day […]
November 29, 2010 As a general rule, employers are not required to provide any non-health plan benefits to employees on FMLA leave, (such as holiday pay) unless such benefits are provided to employees on non-FMLA leave (29 C.F.R. 825.209). The U.S. Department of Labor addressed your question in an Opinion Letter that can be viewed […]
September 27, 2010 On and after March 30, 2010, both coverage under an employer-provided health plan and amounts paid or reimbursed under such a plan for medical care expenses of an employee’s child who has not attained age 27 as of the end of the employee’s taxable year are excluded from the employee’s gross income […]
September 08, 2010 Issues with interns usually revolve around whether or not they are paid. Therefore, the DOL has created rules on this topic. I will provide them to you, even though they do not answer your question exactly, because they will allow you to see that if the intern has been working for you […]
April 10, 2010 Under the federal FLSA, bonus payments are divided into discretionary and nondiscretionary types (29 USC 207; 29 CFR 778.211). Nondiscretionary bonuses are included in an employee’s regular rate of pay for the purpose of determining overtime, while discretionary bonuses are not included in an employee’s regular rate of pay to determine overtime. […]
November 11, 2010 Employers are not required to pay employees for time spent during bona fide meal periods. Bona fide meal periods are ordinarily breaks that last at least 30 minutes, but they may be shorter under special conditions. They do not include coffee or snack breaks; these are rest periods that may have to […]
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 […]