Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The National Bank Act (NBA) grants banks the power to dismiss their officers “at pleasure.” Courts have interpreted this to mean that the NBA protects banks from wrongful termination claims by officers, including employment discrimination suits. A new decision, however, makes it clear that job duties—not job title—are the determining factor in whether an employee […]
What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? How about a nice romantic interlude … say, an audio conference on workplace romance? We’ll get to that in a minute. First, as promised, attorney Joseph Beachboard on Love Contracts. In yesterday’s Advisor, employment law attorney Joseph Beachboard discussed the challenges of romance in the workplace. Today, he […]
With Valentine’s Day in the air, thoughts naturally turn to the workplace romance: it’s cute, it’s touching … and it’s dangerous. Most such romances eventually break up, and then show their dark side: charges of harassment, hostile environment, favoritism, and retaliation. What do Bill Clinton, Bill O’Reilly, presidential advisor Paul Wolfowitz, and space shuttle astronaut […]
We’ve had a string of sad situations recently that have really tested our bereavement leave policy. We currently offer three days off for the death of an employee’s immediate family member. One situation involved the death of a family member on the East Coast, for which our employee wanted five days of bereavement leave. Another […]
Brian Perez, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, was terminated the day he returned to work at Uline, Inc., in Orange County, following a one-week military leave. Uline presented Perez with a severance agreement, which stated that Perez would receive six weeks’ salary in exchange for releasing the company from all claims, including […]
An employee told HR that we can’t make him work on Sunday because of the state’s “day of rest” law. Is that true?
We have an employee who told us she had cancer and went on leave. Her co-workers stepped up to help get all her work done. Then we found out that it was a fraud—she didn’t have cancer at all. Can we fire the lying employee, or might there be an Americans with Disabilities Act issue? […]
In every issue, we take one reader’s question and ask our other readers to weigh in. Here’s what you had to say about a recent question:
We’ve never had any rules about decorating personal workspaces and never had any problems. But recently, some issues have come up and I think we need a policy. For example, an employee reported that a valuable item was stolen from her desk while she was at a meeting. Another employee complained about a swimsuit calendar […]