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Articles Posted in Human Resources Policies

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A new bill in congress would guarantee all workers get two weeks of paid time off

  Yesterday, several House Democrats announced the introduction of the Protected Time Off (PTO) Act to guarantee all full-time workers access to at least ten paid days off from work each year. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), who proposed a 32-hour workweek last week, is introducing companion legislation in the…

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An employer that fired an employee for a positive marijuana test may have discriminated against him too.

Right or wrong, an honest belief may be all it takes to proffer a nondiscriminatory reason for an adverse employment action. Do you remember that employer that terminated 65 employees seeking FMLA simultaneously with the same doctor’s notes? The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the company suspected shenanigans,…

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New employment laws may not just expose employers to liability; they may double it!

Among the top employment issues that companies will need to navigate in 2024 is enforcing laws that have more recently taken effect. Take the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, for example. The PUMP Act, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, took effect in December 2022. It provides additional workplace…

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What’s the worst that could happen to a former employee who hacks your network and lies to the feds about it?

Well, I don’t know if it’s the worst, but getting sentenced to 24 months in prison for a network intrusion and making false statements to a government agency sounds pretty bad. I was reading about this situation last night, and it sounded like something I would have blogged about before.…

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POLL RESULTS (sort of): Only about half of employers still have COVID-19 policies

Although the vast majority of businesses implemented a written COVID-19 policy at one time or another, many have eliminated or stopped updating those policies. That’s what I learned from a poll I posted on Friday using SurveyMonkey, to which 227 people responded. However, in full disclosure, I didn’t realize at…

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POLL: Does your business have a COVID-19 policy?

The other day, a partner asked me about COVID-19 policies and how clients may still implement them. Candidly, it wasn’t something I’d thought about for a while. Heck, I had to dust one off to remember all of the minutiae about vaccines, CDC guidelines, etc. There are a few states…

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This recent federal court decision makes me further question the utility of drug testing for most positions.

Let’s see if you agree with me. The defendant operated a hotel and event venue. The plaintiff had an opioid addiction and had been prescribed methadone to treat her addiction. She took methadone daily. In 2021, the plaintiff applied for the position of banquet bartender with the defendant. The plaintiff…

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Five plant managers learned the hard way that betting on which workers will get COVID-19 doesn’t pay

About three years ago, seven plant managers lost their jobs following an investigation into allegations of betting on how many workers there would get sick from the coronavirus. Shortly before losing their jobs, a handful did not receive a bonus they felt the company improperly withheld. So they sued. What…

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I know when you can start filing EEO-1 Component 1 Data. Here’s a hint: 🎃🍬🍫

Yes, soon after I start recycling old blog posts next month about the liability risks that employees and their poor costume choices present for employers, all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting specific criteria can start submitting demographic workforce data,…