Q&A: Respond quickly and thoughtfully to social media posts
Question: I just found out that an employee posted a hateful comment toward immigrants on her personal Facebook page. We’re afraid of the bad PR impact on our business. Can we fire her for violation of our policy against discrimination?
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Question: Our company policy prohibits employees from supervising their family members or people with whom they have a romantic relationship. I believe a female supervisor is romantically involved with one of her direct reports. Can I ask both employees about the relationship and require that they disclose the nature of their relationship? And if either or both of the employees refuse to answer, can I take disciplinary action?
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The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) hustled to wrap up major financial settlements from federal contractors as the federal government’s fiscal year drew to a close on September 30, 2017. The settlements were the result of the OFCCP’s focus on hiring, placement (“steering”), and compensation practices during random affirmative action audits. Below…
Read More…The 2017 California legislative session has drawn to a close, and Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a slew of new bills affecting private employers. Below are the major employment-related bills that affect most California employers. All of them take effect on January 1, 2018. AB 168: Bans employers from asking job…
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Question: One of our new employees is pregnant and has started taking frequent breaks for drinks, snacks, and using the bathroom. She is also sitting down on the job a lot. Do we have to allow this?
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On September 21, 2017 Vigilant hosted a Washington Paid Sick Leave webinar. Find a list of FAQs from the webinar below.
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Question: We are a family friendly company and would like to offer 2 weeks of paid leave to new fathers and 6 weeks of paid leave to new mothers. Are we allowed to do this?
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Finding no evidence of discrimination under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a railroad terminated a train engineer because of his poor attendance, not his diagnosed sleep disorder. Although this case was brought under FEHA, the analysis was the same as it…
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Question: One of our employees seriously injured his hand at work after just a couple of days on the job. Based on the nature of his injury, it seems obvious that he must have committed a safety violation. Can we fire him?
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Vigilant recently held a webinar covering 2017 legislation impacting Oregon employers with new overtime and maximum hour rules for manufacturers, predictive scheduling, amendments to Oregon’s sick leave law, and pay equity. We’ve received some great follow-up questions regarding the overtime and maximum hour rules for manufacturers, as well as questions about Oregon’s…
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Oregon recently passed a new law that takes effect on January 1, 2018, prohibiting employers from compelling, coercing, or otherwise requiring an employee to create, file or sign a time record that the employer knows to be false (HB 3008). Pursuant to the new law, courts may award up to…
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