Happy Holidays!
I know I’m not alone when I say that this year flew by at an accelerated speed. As much as it was a whirlwind of activity, it’s been so much fun meeting the needs of our clients and dealing with the continuous HR challenges that businesses face daily. As we say goodbye to 2009, we want to thank you SO much for your business. It has been an honor and a blessing to serve you.
Have a Blessed Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!
~ Terri Olson Spreen
If your business is fortunate enough to afford a holiday celebration, please consider our advice to make sure the event is memorable (in a good way!)
We love those company parties, but sometimes at least one person gets out of control when there is an open bar. The “aftermath” results in headaches for the employer. For example, employees lose respect for supervisors/managers if they witness unprofessional behavior from over indulging of alcohol. Sexual harassment is another issue that results from people drinking and socializing with co-workers. Even at a social event where employees participate voluntarily, the company can be at risk for complaints and lawsuits resulting from offensive behavior by management employees, non-management employees and guests. Generally, employees are more relaxed and uninhibited which can - and has from our experience - led to kissing, groping or worse. Gossip of “who did what” at the company party can also create distraction and/or a lack of respect for those who partied too hard and/or acted unprofessionally when back at the office.
What does HR Prescriptions recommend?
- Have your event during the day and preferably at your office where all rules and policies still apply.
- Cut out the alcohol which not only significantly reduces your costs, but cuts your liability (and all the other problems caused by drinking).
- Send a memo to all employees reminding them of appropriate behavior at company-sponsored functions and, if serving alcohol, the limitations on their consumption. (Drink tickets come in handy, but those who don’t drink will just give them to those that do, so you may want to hand out tickets only to those who will personally use them.)
- Be prepared to pay a cab for a “tipsy” employee to get home safely.
- If your party is at a hotel, you may want to have a couple of rooms available should someone be too intoxicated to know their way home (i.e., can’t tell the cab driver their address).
We hope YOUR event is a safe and wonderful success!
Has the spread of flu, including H1N1, had an impact on your business? The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) has provided some guidelines on protecting the spread of infection at work, such as Swine Flu. Adopting these practices may prevent disruption of your business, including office closure, due to illness.
- Q: During a pandemic, may we require our employees to adopt infection control practices?
- A: Yes. Requiring infection control practices, such as regular hand washing, coughing and sneezing etiquette, and tissue usage and disposal, does not implicate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Q: May we require our employees to wear personal protective equipment (e.g., face masks, gloves, or gowns) designed to reduce the transmission of a pandemic virus?
- A: Yes, an employer may require employees to wear personal protective equipment. However, where an employee with a disability needs a related reasonable accommodation under the ADA (for example, non-latex gloves, or gowns designed for individuals who use wheelchairs), the employer should provide these unless doing so would involve undue hardship.
- Q: May we encourage or require our employees to telework (i.e., work from an alternative location such as home) as an infection control strategy?
- A: Yes, an employer may encourage or require employees to telework as an infection-control strategy, based on timely information from public health authorities about pandemic conditions. Telework also may be a reasonable accommodation. Of course, says the EEOC, employers must not single out employees either to telework or to continue reporting to the workplace on a basis prohibited by any EEO law.
Swine flu is just one of many challenges in managing time off. If you’re facing one of those challenges and need expert advice, we’re just a phone call or away.
It is not uncommon to have a pregnant employee placed on PDL (Pregnancy Disability Leave) early for bed rest due to complications. The question we’ve been asked often is what her FMLA/CFRA eligibility status would be if she has less than one year of employment, yet still has not given birth by the time she exceeds her 16 weeks of PDL.
If the employee’s child has not been born by the time she utilizes four months of PDL, but her health care provider determines that a continuation of leave is medically necessary, the employer may, but is not required to, allow an otherwise eligible employee to utilize CFRA leave. Even if you permit the employee to take such a leave, however, you do not have to grant the employee more CFRA leave, i.e., longer than the equivalent of 12 work weeks, than she would otherwise be entitled to.
Unfortunately for the employee, the law requires that she be granted a maximum of four months pregnancy disability leave. If she is only four months into the pregnancy at the time she experiences complications, you cannot be forced to allow her to take a CFRA-qualifying leave at the end of that period, even though she will not yet have given birth. Under these facts, you would be encouraged to permit the otherwise eligible employee to utilize CFRA leave to cover the remainder of her pregnancy, delivery, and recovery. However, you might be able to lawfully terminate her employment at the conclusion of the four-month pregnancy disability leave due to her inability to resume performing the essential functions of her position. In most cases, you may not want to do that, but if you do, consider these issues:
- How does the company deal with employees who are temporarily disabled for reasons other than pregnancy?
- What is the maximum duration of leave granted to such employees?
- Have any other employees experienced complications from pregnancy which caused them to be off work for more than four months?
- How did the company handle those situations, if any?
- Was additional leave granted?
- Is there an applicable collective bargaining agreement and, if so, what provision(s), if any, might be applicable?
More questions? Give us a call…
Are you considering a company closure during the holidays or for economic reasons? If so, you need to know how to pay your exempt employees without violating wage and hour law. Our employment attorney, Eric Sohlgren of Payne & Fears LLP, offers his expertise on this topic:
“In order to avoid a payment obligation to exempt employees during a business closure, the business must close down for the entire workweek. This is because the California Labor Commissioner says that employers cannot dock the wages of exempt employees (who are ready, willing and able to work) if they work a partial week and cannot work the remainder of the week due to the employer’s action in closing the business. In this case, the employer must pay exempt employees for the entire week even though they only worked a partial week. This may defeat the financial benefit of the closure.
“However, if a business is closed for a full workweek, the employer need not pay any salary to exempt employees for the workweek, providing that they do not perform any work during that week.
“Further, the Labor Commissioner has said in an opinion letter that an employer may not force an employee to take vacation or Paid Time Off if the work is unavailable due to the employer’s action. What an employer can do, however, is to give exempt employees a choice: either take no salary for the week shutdown, or at their option, they can charge vacation or PTO.”
So, in order to avoid a payment obligation to exempt employees during a business shutdown, HR Prescriptions recommends that all of the following be put in place:
- Shut down for the entire workweek.
- Instruct exempt employees in writing not to work, and take steps to make sure that they don’t. For example, you may want to close remote e-mail access or advise clients in advance that the company will be closed. You may want to designate one or two people to field client questions if necessary, but those employees would need to be paid for the entire week if they work any part of it.
- Give exempt employees the choice of taking no salary or charging PTO for the week.
Do you have any questions? Give us a call at 714-441-2422 or send us an e-mail!
First Major Civil Rights Bill of the New Century - All Employers Must Comply
What is GINA? GINA stands for the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. It is a federal law that prevents employers from collecting or using an employee’s genetic information when making hiring, firing, job placement or promotion decisions. The new language is included in the body of the Federal EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) notice. All employers with 15 or more employees must post the revised Federal EEOC notice that includes the new mandatory GINA provisions. Employment provisions in Title II of GINA will apply to the same covered entities as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 whether or not the employer conducts genetic testing.
EEOC Updated Poster - The EEOC has published the final rule and language and it is available by clicking here. If you have ordered your State/Federal poster from HR Prescriptions in the past and want a new, updated poster, please let us know. Otherwise, using this supplemental poster is acceptable to remain in compliance.
President Obama signed into law the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647). This new law includes an expansion of the recently-enacted exigency and caregiver leave provisions for military families under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).
In January 2008, Congress amended the FMLA to provide:
These previsions are effective upon enactment. Remember that an employee is only eligible for FMLA if you have 50 or more employees and the employee works at least 1,250 hours in a 12-month period.
Sun Coast General Insurance Agency has been our client since we began in 2000. However, their Laguna Hills agency has been around since 1980 and is still going strong. Under the ownership of David Yeskin, Sun Coast is a full service general agency offering competitive (Admitted & Surplus Lines) products for the professional Independent Insurance Agent / Broker marketplace, including Automobile, Homeowners, Boats and Personal Watercraft, Ocean Marine, and Commercial Lines.
Human Resources Manager, Lori Barker, says Sun Coast’s success is based on providing a variety of insurance products and services to their clients, as well as strong customer service to both agents and insureds alike.
Beyond Customer Service, their staff would be the true key for their longevity and success - 27% of the staff has been employed with Sun Coast General 20+ years; 38% between 10 and 20 years and the remaining staff employed under 10 years. Having flexibility with their staff has resulted in loyalty, longevity and that warm “family” feeling at the end of the day.
Lori kindly added, “Sun Coast General Insurance appreciates the services of Terri Olson and HR Prescriptions for their HR guidance over the years. Even a senior, experienced company, such as ourselves, can benefit greatly from the HR regulations necessary to maintain compliance in today’s tough business environment.”
Thanks to Lori and the rest at Sun Coast...We love you guys! 
Employers should not distribute any medications, even over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, directly to employees. Most of us know that over-the-counter medications also have health risks and side effects that can be serious or even fatal. What if the amount of OTC medication you provided (or suggested) to an employee was the wrong dosage for them? What if the medication you handed the employee causes drowsiness resulting in a workplace accident? What if they get in a car accident on their drive home? Employers should not take on the risks and liabilities of managing employees’ medical conditions.
Another option is for employers to actually add one or two basic OTC medications to the first-aid kit supplies available to employees. Many resources - HR Prescriptions included - advise against this option because of concerns of overuse, improper use and pilfering of these supplies. Your organization should proceed only after consultation with legal counsel and management. If your company chooses to include OTC medications in a first-aid kit, it is imperative that you provide only single-dose packages that are properly labeled as regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, including a tamper-evident package. Do not purchase any product that contains ingredients that are known to cause drowsiness. With proper labeling, employees are then able to self-select if available OTC medications are right for them.
The USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) announced that E-Verify is available for federal contractors as of September 8, 2009. The rule was originally scheduled to become effective on January 15, 2009 but had been delayed several times.
E-Verify is a free internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). It allows employers to verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. E-Verify is the result of Executive Order 13465 by President George W. Bush in June 2008 requiring federal contractors to use the system to verify the work eligibility of:
- all persons hired during the contract term by the contractor to perform employment duties within the United States, and
- all persons assigned by the contractor to perform work within the United States on the federal contract.
The rule requires federal contractors to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of all employees hired after the receipt of a federal government contract. The rule also requires contractors to re-verify the employment eligibility of current employees assigned to perform work on the contract, which is different from the former program which only allowed employers to verify the eligibility of newly hired employees.
We’re proud to have Trading Places International® as our “Charter Client” and our friends. RJ Jackson, President, and his wife Barbara (HR Director at the time) were the first to put their confidence and faith in HR Prescriptions almost 10 years ago. Other owners Michael Kizerian and Marcus Wood have also been instrumental in the success of this thriving business.
As a privately owned California corporation, TPI provides a full spectrum of vacation services to vacation interval owners, resort associations, and resort developers. The company specializes in resort management, vacation exchange, rentals, owner resales, reservation services, golf, and traditional travel. With 226 employees in 10 States, their HR Manager, Candice Serrano, is very busy and keeps us hopping to address a variety of needs (and great material if we ever write a book!).
Their website offers numerous “Hot Deals” that are REAL travel bargains! Please consider Trading Places International when seeking your next vacation. You can find all kinds of travel ideas at http://www.tradingplaces.com.
For those of you who enjoyed last month’s “tips” to post in the men’s restroom, you’ve told us you were waiting for the women’s tips. As women, we decided we could write our own!
- Please flush until all remains of your “visit” are gone.
- Tampons are designed to absorb moisture - that’s why the package says “Do not flush.”
- Be a sweetie and wipe the seatie. (I mean, really, how does this happen?)
- Please complete all cell phone calls before entering the restroom.
- Wash your hands after using the facilities.
- Paper towels should be dispensed in the trash can, not the floor.
We have a client that is actively seeking qualified candidates for a new position as Quality Assurance Supervisor. The purpose of this position is to ensure and improve the quality and accuracy of the Company’s sales calls, building profits for the business and commissions for employees. Please contact us for more details.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division reminded us that federal minimum wage increased to $7.25 on July 24, 2009. This increase is the last of three provided by the enactment of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. A revised Federal minimum wage poster is now available for viewing, downloading, and posting or you can contact us for a “peel and stick” version for the all-in-one State/Federal poster you purchased through us. Every employer with employees subject to the Fair Labor Standard Act’s minimum wage provisions must post – and keep posted – a notice explaining the Act in a conspicuous place in all of their business so that all employees may easily read it.
If you have 100 or more employees, don’t forget to file your EEO-1 Report with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This report is required and collects data about gender and race/ethnicity by job grouping. You can submit the report on-line at http://www.eeoc.gov. Need more information? Give us a call.
