12/26/2011
While today's Iowa caucuses feel like the end of a long campaign season, it’s really just the beginning of a heated political year … one that could spill over into your workplace. Follow these tips for handling political activity in your workplace and employees' political advocacy outside of work.
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11/15/2011
Given the low cost and the easy accessibility of electronic records storage, many employers are making the digital leap to “paperless” HR. But despite the many benefits of going paperless, a host of legal problems could derail even the best-intentioned digital records plan. Carefully consider these legal issues when transitioning to an electronic personnel records system.
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09/23/2011
In private-sector workplaces, employees do not have First Amendment rights, as public employees do. But certain laws do provide employees with some protection for certain types of expression at work.
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08/22/2011
While you shouldn’t punish employees who complain about working conditions (pay, perks, supervisors, etc.) on social media sites, you don’t have to tolerate overt insubordination or workers who violate confidentiality rules.
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08/01/2011
Say one of your employees stops by your office with a troubled look on her face. She has a complaint, but wants to speak with you “off the record.” Can you comply with her request for confidentiality? Should you? It all depends on the content and context of the complaint.
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07/26/2011
Q. We recently learned that one of our employees posted comments on a friend’s Facebook page, coming to our company’s defense over a recent drop in stock price. The employee came dangerously close to disclosing information about earnings that were not yet public. What can and should we do?
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06/16/2011
When explaining your computer-use policy, make sure employees understand they may be criminally prosecuted if they violate the rules and gain access to information they have no business reading. That should make them think twice about obtaining confidential information and passing it on to the competition.
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06/03/2011
Employers are used to breathing a sigh of relief when 300 days pass without learning that a former employee has filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC or the New York State Division of Human Rights. They assume that missing the deadline means the employee won’t be able to sue. Not so fast!
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05/13/2011
Make it clear with employees—early and often—that your electronic communications are not their private playground. Legally, it’s your organization’s property and you have the right to monitor every e-mail as you wish.
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05/10/2011
No federal law grants employees the right to inspect their personnel files. However, many states do give employees that right and spell out the terms under which employees are allowed to inspect their files. Here's a state-by-state list of laws governing access to personnel files.
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05/10/2011
It's a sure thing: Your employees are using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. That means you need to make conscious decisions about how to address social media issues with your employees. Proactively develop a policy so you don’t get stuck doing damage control—perhaps becoming the latest talk heard ’round the virtual water cooler.
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05/03/2011
Employees have the right to discuss working conditions, whether face-to-face around the water cooler or in the online world. The National Labor Relations Board seems intent on making sure employers understand that social media posts are protected, too. Hot on the heels of a decision involving Facebook, the NLRB is now tackling Twitter. Tip: Time for you to develop a social media policy.
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04/25/2011
Can an employee who wants to prove discrimination take, copy and disclose company documents? How does that square with the company’s right to protect what it deems to be confidential information? The New Jersey Supreme Court recently offered some guidance on this issue in Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright.
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04/20/2011
Disneyland Resort workers have filed a lawsuit claiming the Walt Disney Co. is violating state law by encoding workers’ identification cards with their Social Security numbers. The workers say they’re worried that the encoded information on their ID cards could be accessed using barcode scanners such as the kind commonly available as smartphone apps.
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03/16/2011
As social networking sites like Facebook have become more popular, more and more workplaces are confronting this issue. No law forbids supervisors from “friending” subordinates. However, online relationships that Facebook fosters can create a variety of risks for employers.
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