2020
- Holidays...To Pay or Not to Pay, What is Required
- EEOC Update on COVID-19
- Protection of Employee Health Information
- Civil Rights Win for LGBTQ Employees
- OSHA Recordkeeping Requirements During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- The Line Between At-Will Termination and Wrongful Termination
- Regulating Firearms in the Workplace
- Social Media Use in Hiring
2019
2018
- What Not to Wear
- Vicarious Liability for Unlawful Harrassment
- Employee Surveillance & Union Formation
- A Lesson in Retaliation
- Employers May Sometimes Judge a Book By Its Cover
- Mind Your P’s and Q’s . . . and BFOQs
- Severance Agreements
- U.S. Department of Labor "Paid" Program
- Revisiting Records Retention
- Calculating the Regular Rate
- Independent Contractor or Employee?
2017
- Sexual Orientation Discrimination
- DRI Membership: It’s Personal
- Is Extended Leave a Reasonable Accommodation?
- Parental Leave
- Pay Disparity
- Religious accomodation in the workplace
- Equal pay and prior salary information
- I quit! How to avoid constructive discharge
- You Can't Shred Email
- Navigating Unemployment Claims
- Considering Criminal History in Pre-Employment Decisions
- Defamation Claims from Former Employees
- Mixed Motive Causation
2016
- Requesting Accomodation: Kowitz v. Trinity Health
- Antitrust Law in Human Resources
- An Evolving Standard: Joint-Employment
- What Does At-Will Employment Mean for Employers?
- Let's Talk About Wages
- THE FLSA: CHANGES ARE COMING
- Follow Up: Obesity and the ADA
- The Importance of Social Media Policies
- Is Obesity a Qualifying Disability under the ADA?
- Retaliation on the Rise: The EEOC Responds
- What Motivates You?
2015
- "But I thought ...
- Who’s expecting? And what is he expecting?
- Are You Still Doing Annual Performance Reviews?
- Who is Your Employee?
- The unpaid intern trap Part II
- “We’ve been the victim of a cyber-attack”
- So, a Hasidic Jew, a nun in a habit and a woman wearing a headscarf walk into your office?
- The unpaid intern trap
- Pregnancy in the workplace
- Let's talk about honesty.
- "Did You Know" Series - Part I
- Conducting an Internal Investigation
- What HR can look forward to in 2015!
2014
- The chokehold of workplace technology
- Does your company have trade secrets?
- North Dakota Construction Law Compendium for 2014
- Does the North Dakota baby boom affect you?
- Ban the Box? Why?
- The end of the world as we know it
- Everybody has an opinion
- Changes, Changes, Changes!
- Nick Grant presents at North Dakota Safety Council's 41st Annual Safety and Health Conference
- Email impairment: A potentially harmful condition
- Are Employers Required to Give Stressed-Out Employees Time Off?
2013
- Can you obtain a credit report when investigating employee wrongdoing?
- Can’t we just sidestep the ACA?
- Should Your Employees Telecommute? Part III
- Should Your Employees Telecommute? Part II
- Should Your Employees Telecommute?
- Proper Investigation of Employee Misconduct
- Battles in the Wellness War
- Rules are rules! Aren’t they?
- What's going on in Bismarck
- A glimpse ahead
2012
- Obesity as a disability under the ADA – reweighing the issue
- What’s next for your business under the Affordable Care Act?
- Criminal Background Checks
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 5 of 5]
- Congress Says Yes To North Slope Energy Jobs Bill
- Test Your Knowledge of Social Media Policies and Employee Discipline
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 4 of 5]
- What Every Employer Needs to Know About the NLRA
- Will the 2012 Elections Make A Difference
2011
- Where There's Smoke...
- Dress Code Etiquette: Is Casual Friday Becoming Freaky Friday
- The Next Disaster May Be Yours
- Hostile Work Environment Claims
- North Dakota Employment Law Links
- There's An App For That
- Am I a “Business Associate”? Why Should I Care?
- Do You Recognize a Cat's Paw When You See One?
- Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part II
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 3 of 5]
- Cell Phones Can Cost a Lot, Part I
- The Economy - What HR Professionals Need To Know
- Becoming a lawyer is a process, not an event [Section 2 of 5]
- Three New Challenges For HR Professionals
2010
Jan 06, 2011
Those in the trenches of human resource management face new legal issues each day. Here are three that you might look out for in 2011.
1. A dispute caused by use of a mobile device. You have all heard about the problems caused by clandestine cell-phone pictures of co-workers posted to YouTube. This is old news. Have you thought about problems that your company could have if your non-exempt employees are racking up overtime hours using a mobile device to conduct business outside of regular hours? What would you do if you face a claim for two years of overtime pay? Your employee is willing to substantiate the work by sharing outgoing communications. However, the employee also claims overtime at the rate of fifteen to thirty minutes per email or text for hundreds of after-hours communications. How will your company meet record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act if you wish to deny the claim?
2. Another dispute caused by use of a mobile device. Have you thought about liability to your company if one of your employees causes an accident while texting on a PDA? Even if the text itself is not business-related and not on a company-provided PDA, injured plaintiffs argue that misuse of PDAs by employees during their work activities is foreseeable. It is negligent, they argue, for an employer to fail to take steps to prevent PDA use during potentially dangerous work activity, like driving.
3. A social networking issue. One of your workers feels that she is suffering workplace discrimination. She does not tell you. Instead, she voices her views on facebook. You have a policy that prohibits your employees from disparaging the company online. You fire the employee. Are you correct?
DO ANY OF THESE POTENTIAL CLAIMS CAUSE YOU CONCERN?
Consider taking the action now to reduce the risk.
For #1 require that your non-exempt employees turn in their overtime requests weekly. Require your employee to produce a time log and the incoming communication to show that a customer initiated the text or email. Otherwise, require your employee to substantiate that the off-hours work was done at the employer’s request.
For #2 adopt a company policy banning on-the-job texting when away from one’s desk or immediate work area. Ban texting while driving or operating machinery even if that location is a standard work area. Your employees may violate the policy, but a well-crafted and enforced policy might protect the company if an accident happens.
For #3 create a social media policy that is meaningful to your business. One size-fits-all policies will not work in today’s job environment. Using overly broad terms may bar protected speech. If your workplace is or may be unionized, an overly broad policy may allow a court to void your policy as an infringement of the right to organize. Of course, you may prohibit employees from spreading falsehoods or committing online harassment. You should consider other restrictions too, such as prohibiting use of your company email address as a worker’s login or site contact and prohibiting work-hour postings.
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the January 2011 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.
Three New Challenges For HR Professionals
By: Paul EbeltoftThose in the trenches of human resource management face new legal issues each day. Here are three that you might look out for in 2011.
1. A dispute caused by use of a mobile device. You have all heard about the problems caused by clandestine cell-phone pictures of co-workers posted to YouTube. This is old news. Have you thought about problems that your company could have if your non-exempt employees are racking up overtime hours using a mobile device to conduct business outside of regular hours? What would you do if you face a claim for two years of overtime pay? Your employee is willing to substantiate the work by sharing outgoing communications. However, the employee also claims overtime at the rate of fifteen to thirty minutes per email or text for hundreds of after-hours communications. How will your company meet record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act if you wish to deny the claim?
2. Another dispute caused by use of a mobile device. Have you thought about liability to your company if one of your employees causes an accident while texting on a PDA? Even if the text itself is not business-related and not on a company-provided PDA, injured plaintiffs argue that misuse of PDAs by employees during their work activities is foreseeable. It is negligent, they argue, for an employer to fail to take steps to prevent PDA use during potentially dangerous work activity, like driving.
3. A social networking issue. One of your workers feels that she is suffering workplace discrimination. She does not tell you. Instead, she voices her views on facebook. You have a policy that prohibits your employees from disparaging the company online. You fire the employee. Are you correct?
DO ANY OF THESE POTENTIAL CLAIMS CAUSE YOU CONCERN?
Consider taking the action now to reduce the risk.
For #1 require that your non-exempt employees turn in their overtime requests weekly. Require your employee to produce a time log and the incoming communication to show that a customer initiated the text or email. Otherwise, require your employee to substantiate that the off-hours work was done at the employer’s request.
For #2 adopt a company policy banning on-the-job texting when away from one’s desk or immediate work area. Ban texting while driving or operating machinery even if that location is a standard work area. Your employees may violate the policy, but a well-crafted and enforced policy might protect the company if an accident happens.
For #3 create a social media policy that is meaningful to your business. One size-fits-all policies will not work in today’s job environment. Using overly broad terms may bar protected speech. If your workplace is or may be unionized, an overly broad policy may allow a court to void your policy as an infringement of the right to organize. Of course, you may prohibit employees from spreading falsehoods or committing online harassment. You should consider other restrictions too, such as prohibiting use of your company email address as a worker’s login or site contact and prohibiting work-hour postings.
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the January 2011 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.