Vigilant Blog

A voluminous workload, combined with an employment policy forbidding employees from entering overtime on their timesheets, led to one employee filing a claim for unpaid overtime due to her off-the-clock activities. The employee was given more work than could be completed in a typical eight-hour day and, within her first few weeks of work, she…

We have a salaried employee reaching the end of her PTO allotment. She has some vacation and assorted medical appointments coming up. Can we require her to accrue a negative PTO balance? Can we deduct the negative balance from her final paycheck if she leaves? You can require her to run a negative PTO balance,…

A new version of Form I-9 is now available and will be mandatory effective May 7, 2013. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) clarified the instructions and expanded the form itself to two pages. The additional guidance and new layout is intended to reduce confusion for employers and workers. The revision date on the…

Employers can’t fire workers for verbally complaining of wage-and-hour violations, ruled the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. An employee repeatedly told management and HR representatives that the company was violating the law by placing the time clock so it wasn’t accessible until workers put on the protective gear required for a clean-room environment and then walked…

Remember to set your clocks back one hour when Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday, November 7, 2010, at 2 a.m. If you’re not working during the time change, enjoy your extra hour of sleep. For employees who normally work eight hours on the night shift, they may work nine hours that day (e.g., from 11…

In a small victory for employers, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (FPA) applies solely to compensation claims. The FPA allows employees to file a lawsuit against their employers for discrimination in pay, but what’s unique about the law is that it treats the payment…