A “retaliation“ claim generally can be defined as illegal conduct or action that harasses, demotes, terminates an employee, or takes other action affecting employment such as threats, unjustified negative evaluations, unjustified negative references, increased surveillance, or any other action such as an assault or unfounded civil or criminal charges that are likely to deter reasonable people from pursuing their rights.
The FMLA requires that an employee returning from FMLA leave be reinstated to the same or equivalent position. “Equivalent“ means equivalent pay, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment. The DOL's regulations clarify that “the employee is ordinarily entitled to return to the same shift or the same or equivalent work schedule“.
With regard to terminating COBRA coverage, the employer (or plan administrator) must send a COBRA termination notice to the qualified beneficiary that includes:
Investigative files should be kept separate from the personnel files. Since it is not a personnel file, the investigative records are not included in regular HR related document destruction schedules. These files should also not be made available for employee review. Investigative records may be kept in legal counsel's office or, if that is impracticable, within HR in a separate file cabinet with key access strictly restricted. Generally, not all HR people will have a need to see ...
In situations where the employer believes a criminal act has occurred, engaging the police immediately is critical. In engaging the police, it allows the company to leverage local law enforcement to investigate the case by obtaining a police report. The police report provides the company with an official document that states what the facts of the case are and/or the incident that actually occurred. Additionally, the police report “opens up a case“ for law enforcement and gives ...
Employers must assess accommodation requests individually based on the employee's specific functional limitations, the job requirements, and operational realities. Employers must then provide a reasonable accommodation unless it would cause undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense) or would pose a direct threat that cannot be mitigated.
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act FMLA, one of the most critical protections for employees is the right to job restoration after returning from qualifying leave. Below are some details of the rules for FMLA job restoration — including exceptions, timing, and what employers can (and cannot) do. Maintaining human resources compliance ...
The key areas of worker classification focus on determining whether a person providing services to a business is an employee or an independent contractor - and within those categories, how they are further classified for legal, tax, and benefit purposes.
The Six Key Areas of Worker Classification Include:
Defining Employee vs. Independent Contractor
This is the most critical and common classification question, so here are some
...Employers must have a reimbursement or allowance arrangement in place to reimburse employees for eligible expenses incurred on behalf of the company. A reimbursement or allowance arrangement is a system by which an employer substantiates and pays the advances, reimbursements, and charges for its employees' business expenses. How a reimbursement or allowance amount is reported depends on whether the employer has an accountable or a non-accountable plan. Accountable Plan To be ...
Generally speaking, Cafeteria Plans allow employees to pay their share of insurance premiums, certain out-of-pocket medical and dependent care expenses, and certain other benefits with pre-tax dollars versus paying these same expenses with after-tax dollars. Thus, the employee saves federal income taxes and FICA taxes on the total amount paid through a Cafeteria Plan. And, in all states except New Jersey, the employee also saves state ...