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by Michael Futterman and Jaime Touchstone Employers have long used paid vacation policies as a compensation benefit and a means of enhancing employee productivity. To keep pace in a competitive hiring market, many start-ups offer employees the right to take “unlimited” paid vacation. While “unlimited vacation” policies do offer certain benefits, the law on such […]
Human resources professionals know well the mantra: Document, document, document. But just writing things down isn’t enough. HR needs to recognize and avoid common documentation mistakes. Susan G. Fentin, a partner with the Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. law firm in Springfield, Massachusetts, recently outlined common mistakes as part of a Business & Legal Resources […]
by David Johnson Including a mandatory arbitration provision in an employment contract is a trendy thing to do. Is it the right thing to do for your business? Let’s look at some commonly accepted pros and cons of arbitration and dispel some myths. Pros Arbitration is cheaper and quicker. This is usually true because court […]
No employer wants impaired workers on the job, and most take steps intended to prevent drugs and alcohol from causing harm. But despite carefully considered policies, problems often occur. Statistics reported in the June 2 Wall Street Journal are giving employers more to worry about. Statistics from Quest Diagnostics Inc., a major administer of workplace […]
by Elaine Young In 2013, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was part of the group that drafted and passed a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate. The bill later fizzled out in the House of Representatives. This year, Senator Hatch introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2015, which addresses one aspect of comprehensive immigration reform—increasing the […]
Questions regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can get tricky. For example, if an employee is off work because of a medical condition, can the employer start the FMLA clock ticking even if the employee doesn’t want his time off counted against his FMLA leave allotment? And what about an exempt employee who […]
by Brad Federman Willful blindness is a legal term that means there is information you could and should know but have elected not to know. Deliberate indifference and contrived ignorance also are used to describe the phenomenon. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of willful blindness in the world today. Willful blindness causes the downfall […]
Few dispute the importance of developing a workforce full of well-trained employees. But no matter how carefully workers are recruited and hired, most employers realize not everybody lands in a new job with all the skills and knowledge the employer desires. And certainly longtime employees can’t be expected to stay on top of their game […]
by Jesse Goldstein The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently provided guidance on how employers are permitted to react when employees confess that they previously presented fraudulent documents in conjunction with Form I-9, which verifies workers’ employment eligibility. I-9 […]
It may be a cliché to say employees are an employer’s greatest asset. But if that weren’t true, it wouldn’t be a cliché and employers wouldn’t focus so much attention on retaining their best and brightest. The reasons behind an employee’s decision to leave a job depend on each individual’s situation, but new research identifies […]