Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Top brass may have the last word when it comes to adverse actions. But even comments made by lower-level managers — including those in human resources — may be used to support the kind of discrimination claim that often follows in the highly emotional climate following a layoff. A recent appeals court ruling in a […]
Guest post by Lisa Barnett Sween, J.D. and David Lucero, J.D. of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
‘I Can’t Live on What You’re Paying Me’ Conversations In a previous Advisor, we covered the basics of dealing with tough compensation questions. Today, more tough questions from a recent BLR webinar featuring Teresa Murphy and David Wudyka. Wage and Hour Mythbusters Wage and hour should be the easiest job in comp, but there are […]
California lawmakers stayed busy throughout the year, passing a number of new wage, hour, leave and anti-discrimination laws. Here, in no particular order, are some of the biggies that go into effect Jan. 1: Pregnancy Disability Leave All employers with five or more employees will be required, starting Jan. 1, to continue to maintain and […]
Caraway is a member of Miller & Martin PLLC in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her remarks came at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Nashville. [Go here for yesterday’s policy recommendations] Intermittent Leave Describe the smallest increment in which FMLA leave can be taken (hourly, etc). Note that the amount cannot be greater than hourly, […]
Consider the employee who’s always out on Mondays, Fridays, or the days before and after holidays. Suspicious? Perhaps. But what to do about it?
Communication is the Key Caraway reminds employers that communicating the rules is key to successfully managing FMLA. When employees ask about FMLA, they are already stressed by whatever is underlying the request for leave. If you hit them with a rule they don’t know about (they’ll call it a “technicality”) their reaction is going to […]
A consistent employer complaint in administering the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) is the tendency of certain employees to abuse intermittent leave taken to care for their own or a family member’s serious health condition—and the difficulty of managing that abuse.
Keep the FMLA documentation flowing, says attorney Stacie Caraway—You want to be able to show multiple times that you advised the employee of his or her obligations. If you use a cover letter with your DOL designation notice, Caraway suggests it include the following: Leave status update/reminder. If planned intermittent FMLA leave is being approved […]
FMLA—HR’s own personal migraine. (Migraine people, says attorney Stacie Caraway, may have terrible headaches, but never so bad that they don’t know exactly how many days and hours of FMLA they have left.) Successful management of FMLA is very much about careful attention to forms and schedules. In today’s Advisor, Caraway offers tips for getting […]