http://www.staff-line.com Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:12:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en    We have an employee who violated our Internet policy last year (spending too much time on non-work-related Internet sites during work hours), and we placed a warning note in his file after discussing the issue with him. Now, a year later, he has not had any further disciplinary problems. Should we maintain ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/disciplinary-notes-how-long-to-keep-in-file/ When we think of catastrophic employee violence, we often think of the employee that leaves work, returns armed and targets managers and employees alike for issues that have simmered and later trigger an irrationally violent response. As the story indicates, employees can also simply attack their manager when provoked. There is ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/how-to-discipline-and-terminate-employees-safely/ The Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, personally apologized to USDA employee Shirley Sherrod after wrongly accusing her of racial statements and forcing her to resign. Vilsack accepted full responsibly and extended his profound apologies to Sherrod. In Vilsack's words the decision to seek her resignation ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/investigate-first-act-second/ A final rule amending the regulations has been issued to provide that employers and recruiters or referrers for a fee who are required to complete and retain the Form I–9, Employment Eligibility Verification, may sign this form electronically and retain this form in an electronic format. This final rule makes ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/final-rule-released-on-electronic-signature-and-storage-of-form-i-9/   If an employee does not complain to you about harassment, you don’t have to do anything about it, right?  Wrong.  You have a duty to investigate every potential harassment complaint you find out about, or risk facing a claim in court.  Find out the steps to take to make sure ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/harassment-investigations-when-no-formal-complaint-is-made/    You can enforce your attendance policy and discipline employees for excessive absenteeism, even if an employee misses work for medical reasons.  Just make sure you consider potential obligations under the FMLA and ADA first.  Q:         We have an employee who constantly is calling in sick, taking time off for doctor’s ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/when-do-absences-become-excessive/  Q: Can we terminate an employee’s COBRA coverage for nonpayment of COBRA premiums?  Her check for her first payment bounced.  A: If an employee fails to make a COBRA payment within the required time period, you may terminate her coverage.  As a general rule, an employee is entitled to a 45-day ... http://www.staff-line.com/management/nonpayment-of-cobra-premiums/  Q: We have a client who wants to know what country our employees are from.  The client wants this information for security reasons.  Can we ask employees to provide this information, and then can we share it with clients?  A: It generally is not a good idea to ask about an ... http://www.staff-line.com/general/asking-employee%e2%80%99s-country-of-origin/ The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE Act) was signed into law on March 18, 2010, and provides employers who hire certain unemployed workers two temporary tax credits.  Specifically, any employer (except federal, state, and local government employers and household employers) that hires a worker who was previously unemployed ... http://www.staff-line.com/general/new-laws-give-employers-hiring-incentive-2/ A Connecticut woman is believed to be the first in the nation to file a discrimination claim under GINA, the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against an applicant or employee on the basis of genetic information, and from using genetic information to make employment decisions. She filed ... http://www.staff-line.com/archives/first-discrimination-claim-under-gina-filed/