Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.
An employee who accrued more than 7 weeks’ worth of unscheduled absences during her 50-week probationary period was not entitled to job protection under federal disability law, an appeals court has ruled.
Here we present a leave-related workplace scenario—inspired by an actual court case—that’s intended to help HR professionals better understand an employer’s responsibilities under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In this scenario, when an employee went on leave, her coworkers learned that she was not executing important administrative tasks related to her position. Based […]
Question: If an employee has exhausted 12 weeks of FMLA for himself in the calendar year but now has a legal spouse with a serious health condition, can he take an additional 12 weeks?
Many employers are seeing an increase in employees requesting time off to care for their aging parents. Because that trend is likely to continue, you should be prepared to manage such requests, particularly when the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies.
Most Massachusetts employers are required by law to provide “meal breaks” for their employees. However, in many industries, it isn’t always feasible for employees to leave the premises during lunch or even to stop working while they’re eating. If employees work through their meal breaks, must they be paid for that time? What if they […]
Productivity concerns affect the entire organization. If the employer needs more productivity, either the existing employees must make that happen through productivity gains, or more employees must be hired. Either way, Human Resources (HR) is involved, directly or indirectly, through communications, training, hiring, or implementing new programs.
Drug or alcohol abuse in the workplace is obviously a serious concern, and a recent report describes how drug use in the workforce is on the rise. Not only could the employee be putting him- or herself at a health risk, he or she may also be putting other employees at a safety risk. And, […]
The 3rd Circuit—which covers Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—recently ruled that an employer’s honest belief that an employee misused Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave can defeat an FMLA retaliation claim, even if the employer’s belief is mistaken. The court also ruled that under certain circumstances, an employee’s request for FMLA leave may constitute […]
In this article series, we provide a refresher on the basics of the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (FLSA’s) requirements. In our previous article, we explained FLSA’s minimum wage provisions and a few exemptions. In this article, we discuss how they apply to tipped employees and piece-rate workers.
Workplace investigations can be time consuming and exhausting—but, despite that, they’re not a time where it’s okay to cut corners. When conducting an investigation, the organization must always remember that it’s not only seeking to resolve the issue at hand, it’s also seeking to minimize the risk of future lawsuits and do everything properly in […]