Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Question: We have an employee who took four days off to tend to his daughter in the hospital after she received a C-section and another who wants to take three weeks off to assist her sibling going through chemotherapy. Would the absences in both scenarios fall under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? Answer: […]
Question: Our employees drive vehicles strictly for work purposes, but we don’t have a policy on such use. After employees received several speeding tickets, we’d like to introduce a policy that would allow management to deduct the cost of tickets from employees’ wages. Are we allowed to start introducing this type of payroll deduction? Answer: Employers […]
Question: Are there any exceptions to meal and rest break requirements, and are there meal penalties for not allowing staff to take proper breaks? Can we allow employees to waive their meal breaks if they work six hours instead of eight? Answer: This question is mainly controlled by state law. Federal law, for its part, […]
Question: Would it be noncompliant to require employees to work both the day before and the day after a holiday to receive holiday pay? Also, would it break any pay laws not to provide holiday pay to an employee who calls out sick before a holiday? Answer: Although holiday pay is a common benefit employers provide, […]
Question: We have an employee who is undergoing fertility treatments out of town and misses days sporadically. Do these absences fall under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? Answer: Great question; complicated answer. The answer is complicated because a question about FMLA leave is always the start of a longer conversation about whether other […]
Question: Is there a statute of limitations regarding when employers must inform employees of an overpayment of wages, and can employees be held legally accountable for paying the overpayment back? Answer: The Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn’t address how long an employer has to recover overpaid wages. In the absence of federal law, state […]
Question: Do employees have to be employed for 12 months or work 1,250 hours to qualify for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), or do they qualify as soon as they begin employment? Answer: The PWFA applies to employees as soon as they begin employment, and it also applies to applicants. Under the federal PWFA, […]
Question: If we have a drug-free workplace policy and implement random testing, can we fire an employee who tests positive even if the employee simply used marijuana outside the workplace and wasn’t impaired? Answer: The short answer is yes. Employers in Wisconsin specifically are allowed to conduct random drug testing of their employees. If an […]
Question: What can employers do when they doubt an employee’s certification for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? Answer: If an employer doubts the validity of an employee’s FMLA certification, it may require the employee to get a second opinion from a healthcare provider. Generally, for employees to be granted leave under […]
Question: How frequently can a nursing mother take breaks under the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act? For example, although the law requires “reasonable break time,” what if an employee needs to pump every 30 minutes or every hour? Answer: It depends. The PUMP Act requires employers to provide covered employees “reasonable break […]