Beachboard made his remarks at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Exhibition, held recently in Chicago. He is a shareholder in the Los Angeles and Torrance, California, offices of law firm Ogletree Deakins.
[Go here for urban legends 1 to 9.]
Urban Legend #10
They are the staffing firm’s employee, so we don’t have to worry about liability.
Truth: Joint employment principles create liability for both the staffing firm and the company the leased employee performs work for.
Most contingent workers are employees of the staffing company and its client, especially when contingent workers work alongside the client’s employees. As a result, the staffing company and client share employment law obligations.
Urban Legend #11
“At will” means we can fire anyone, anytime, as there is no contract of employment.
Truth: Even at-will employers cannot fire someone for “bad cause.” Also, there is a contract of employment even in at-will situations.
Remember that at-will does not allow you to fire for an illegal reason, or in some cases, against public policy. Furthermore, at-will employment can be displaced by an employment contract, which may be created by offer letters and oral statements. Unfulfilled promises may lead to liability for fraud.
Get ADA compliant job descriptions for your jobs with a Free Market Analysis Report. Also receive guidance on how to use our Compensation Analyzer tool to do market analysis, identify internal and external inequities, and track compensation.
Urban Legend #12
Legend: We can terminate applicants who fail to tell us about disabilities, religious practices, or pregnancy that interfere with their ability to do the job. After all, they effectively lied to us.
Truth: The law says they do not have an obligation to share this information with the employer before being hired.
Employers may not discriminate against a job applicant because of his or her race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.
Furthermore, employers may not base hiring decisions on stereotypes and assumptions about a person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.
Urban Legend #13
Few harassment lawsuits get filed, so I’m not worried.
Truth: While statistically the numbers are small, the costs are huge. And there are reasons to root out harassing behavior beyond litigation avoidance.
In FY 2012, the EEOC received 21,088 charges of harassment. Employer impacts include:
- High employee turnover
- Absenteeism
- Lowered concentration at work
- Lowered morale/teamwork/cooperation
- Time spent talking about/dealing with sexual harassment instead of performing work
- Time-consuming investigations
- Distrust among employees
- Adverse publicity
Trying to get managers to forget urban legends about joint employer liability, salaried employees, and overtime is always a top priority for compensation and benefits managers, but certainly not the only one. “Maintain internal equity and external competitiveness and control turnover, but still meet management’s demands for lowered costs.” “No more cost increases for health care.” Heard those before?
Many of the professionals we serve find helpful answers to all their compensation questions at Compensation.BLR.com, BLR’s comprehensive compensation website.
And there’s great news! The site has just been revamped in two important ways. First, compliance-focused information has been updated to include the latest on COBRA, Lilly Ledbetter, and the FMLA. Second, user features are enhanced to make the site even quicker to respond to your particular needs:
- Topics Navigator—Lets you drill down by topical areas to get to the right data fast.
- Customizable Home Page—Can be configured to display whatever content you want to see most often.
- Menu Navigation—Displays all the main content areas and tools that you need in a simple, easy format.
- Quick Links—Enables you to quickly navigate to all the new and updated content areas.
The services provided by this unique tool include:
- Localized Salary Finder. Based on reliable research among thousands of employers, here are pay scales (including 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) for hundreds of commonly held jobs, from line worker to president of the company. The data are customized for your state and metro area, your industry, and your company size, so you can base your salaries on what’s offered in your specific market, not nationally.
Get an ADA compliant job description, grade assignment, rate range for that job, and salary data, all customized for your industry and geography. Better news? It’s FREE. Download Your Free Market Analysis Report.
- State and Federal Wage-Hour and Other Legal Advice. Plain-English explanations of wage-hour and other compensation- and benefits-related law at both federal and state levels. “State” means the laws of your state, because the site is customized to your use. (Other states can be added at a modest extra charge.)
- Job Descriptions. The website provides them by the hundreds, already written, legally reviewed, and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandate that essential job functions be separated from those less critical. All descriptions carry employment grade levels to current norms—another huge time-saver.
- Merit Increase, Salary, and Benefits Surveys. The service includes the results of three surveys a year. Results for exempt and nonexempt employees are reported separately.
- Daily Updates. Comp and benefits news updated daily (as is the whole site).
- “Ask the Experts” Service. E-mail a question to our editors and get a personalized response within 3 business days.
If we sound as if we’re excited about the program, it’s because we are. For about $3 a working day, the help it offers to those with compensation responsibilities is enormous.
This one’s definitely worth a look, which you can get by clicking the links below.
Click here to get more information or to start a no-cost trial and get a complimentary special report!