In a word, yes. That is, holidays, like other paid time off work is a gift from employers. If the employer determines that s/he cannot afford this gift or that the employee(s) does not deserve this... (more)

In a word, yes. Your employer is not breaking any laws. Your employer has the right to furlough you for two weeks without pay during an established break, especially as s/he is doing the same... (more)

Something else may have happened between the offer being made contingent on a satisfactory background check information and now; but you do have rights concerning the background check if your... (more)

I am assuming that you are referring to a sales professional who began a transaction and was terminated before the transaction was completed. Most companies have their own guidelines for such... (more)

Yes. You can customize work schedules to suit your specific situations--if you want to do that and it does not negatively impact the productivity of the operations at hand. What you have to... (more)

When you say "hourly pay cut," I have to assume that all of your employees are non-exempt. So, the answer is that unless you have contracts in place promising to pay an explicit hourly... (more)

Not knowing more about your business or situation, this is a tad tricky. That is, calculating appropriate pay increases for a large organization is done using standard compensation tools such as... (more)

Most insurance carriers do not want to only offer health insurance, for example, to the higher-level employees for some good business reasons. For one thing, it spreads the risk across fewer... (more)

I believe that the best practice is to first meet separately with each employee. As part of those separate meetings you should ask each employee if he or she is willing to have a joint meeting... (more)

No, there are no requirements for any company to have a qualified human resource professional on staff or even to use the expertise of an outside employment expert such as me. Many companies... (more)

Lt’s define what a company-observed holiday is: Company-observed holidays are "gifts" from the company and no one is entitled to pay for these days except as specified in your employee... (more)

This is a tough situation, as it appears that you are trying to do a good thing by getting through the downturn and keeping everyone employed to the degree you can. Not knowing in what state... (more)

I cannot offer legal advice, however, I can address the question from the perspective of conflict analysis and conflict management. I am curious as to what your HR manager has to say about the... (more)

I am assuming that you are the "secondary mom," as only that person would have genuine interest in having the child's claims paid. Submit the claim information directly to the dad's... (more)

Oh, yes, you may certainly ask -- but don’t expect an answer. I estimate that 95 percent of all employers will only provide you with the dates of employment and title of past employees; and then... (more)

Normally, when a company reduces its workforce, job elimination decisions are based on what work (the nature of the work) and how much work (the amount of work) that will be needed in order to... (more)

You are right on track. People are your most valuable resource. 1. Tell each employee how much you value him/her. 2. The catering business, like many other businesses that provide... (more)

I'm not sure if you are saying that you plan on replacing the laid off workers with other people or not. If that is what you are saying, the question I have for you is why would you replace... (more)

In short, there are no laws to "help" a self-employed woman take maternity leave -- if you're self-employed, you can do what you like. You just don't get paid. Under the federal... (more)

In this economy, it's wise to have five income streams. However, juggling the political and legal aspects of these income streams is no easy task. Needless to say, the juggling can also create a... (more)