Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by H. Mark Adams Q An employee recently came to HR and said she has meningitis. She is now out on leave. What is our obligation—if any—to notify other employees? A As someone who has survived meningitis during my professional career, I have more than passing knowledge about this subject. It’s highly unlikely that any […]
by Darryl J. Lee Utah’s Internet Employment Privacy Act (IEPA) goes into effect May 14, making Utah the latest state to prohibit employers from requiring employees or job applicants to disclose their passwords or user names for personal social media accounts. Similar legislation has been enacted in California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and New Jersey. […]
by Katherine Ritts Schafer An amendment to New York state’s Social Security Number Protection Law goes into effect today, and employers need to understand its implications. Although there are a number of exceptions, employers generally are prohibited from requiring an individual to disclose or furnish his Social Security number (SSN) “for any purpose in connection […]
by Nicola Sutton The recent decision of Limited v. Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal has upheld random alcohol testing where the workplace is determined to be “inherently dangerous” and the method of testing is minimally intrusive. This is an important case for employers seeking […]
By Antoine Aylwin A month ago, we reported on the Ontario Court of Appeal’s surprising decision in R. v. Cole. In that decision the Court of Appeal said that a high school teacher was protected against searches on his work computer by the police absent a search warrant. The Court of Appeal based its decision […]
Wednesday, in NASA v. Nelson, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the government didn’t violate federal contract employees’ constitutional rights by using certain background investigations. In this case, contract employees at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory sued NASA, alleging that the background checks it was using violated their constitutional rights to informational privacy. The background […]
by Joseph C. Pettygrove The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was very complicated when it was originally enacted in 1993. The sheer number of complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the courts since then confirms that employers and employees have long disagreed about how the law applies in their individual […]
by Susan Fahey Desmond Well, here it is — the Health Care Reform and Control Act. Beginning January 1, 2014, every individual will be required to have “minimum essential coverage” through individual market, employer-provided or certain other coverage (e.g., Medicare or CHIP). Also, beginning January 12, 2014, any employer who employed an average of 50 […]
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public employer did not violate an employee’s constitutional privacy rights by searching his personal (and often sexually explicit) text messages that were sent and received on his employer-issued pager. The Backstory The City of Ontario, California, issued pagers that could send and receive text messages to Ontario […]
By Alix Herber While many employees are allowed to access and use the Internet and e-mail on company computers for “limited” personal use, it’s not uncommon for them to misuse this privilege. In Poliquin v. Devon Canada Corporation, the Alberta Court of Appeal was asked whether an employee could be fired for cause because he […]