The Question: One of our employees is saying his coworkers are using very obscene racial slurs in casual conversation. We trust our supervisors and they’ve said they can’t imagine this is actually happening. What should we do?
Read More…The Question: A manager told me that two female employees raised concerns about a male employee who was being “creepy”; they said he stood too close to them and made them feel uncomfortable. The manager asked them to report it to HR, but they haven’t come to see me. It doesn’t seem like I have enough to launch a formal investigation. What can I do in this situation?
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Question: We recently instituted a no-beard policy to ensure that men can securely wear their required safety masks. However, one of our Muslim employees refused, citing the Prophet Muhammad. I’ve studied the Quran, and I know that it doesn’t require beards. Can we discipline or fire him for not shaving?
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Question: We have an employee who took 12 weeks of FMLA leave because of her own serious health condition. Her leave is now expired but she still isn’t able to return to work. Can we terminate her employment since she doesn’t have any FMLA leave left?
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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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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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Question: I understand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program was rescinded. One of our employees obtained work authorization through the DACA program. Do I need to fire her?
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Question: A former employee has reapplied for a job at our company. After she quit about three years ago, she filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The charges were dismissed, but we don’t really want her back again. We don’t have to hire her, do we?
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Question: There’s been a lot of talk in our workplace about the Google engineer who was fired for circulating an anti-diversity memo. What about free speech?
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