Top 10 Employee Handbook Updates For 2012
Article courtesy of Manufacturing.net
Written by Daniel Kaufman, Partner at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP
The New Year is a great time for employers to review and update their employee handbooks. It is especially important this year because of several changes to existing laws, as well as new challenges that employers may not have previously addressed in their handbooks, such as workplace bullying.
Below is a list of the top ten areas that employers should consider updating in their employee handbooks for 2012:
1. EEO Policies
It is important that employers have clear Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policies and consistently enforce such policies. In June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed certification of a class of approximately 1.5 million Wal-Mart female employees claiming that Wal-Mart engaged in sex discrimination by denying female employees promotions and raises. In Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the Supreme Court specifically noted that Wal-Mart had an EEO policy that it enforced, including imposing penalties on those who violated the policy. In light of the Dukes decision, employers should be sure to update and enforce their EEO policies, which may prove critical in avoiding and defending litigation.
2. Employee Discipline
A disciplinary policy with clear procedures places employees on notice of the possible consequences of violating the employer’s policies. Disciplinary policies should require supervisors to look into and document every disciplinary action consistently. This evidence will help employers defeat challenges from employees who have experienced adverse employment decisions. A clear policy that provides for uniformity and consistency in disciplinary actions will reduce the risk of exposure to discrimination claims.
3. Workplace Violence and Conflict Resolution
In September 2011, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a directive on how to respond to workplace violence, which remains a top concern for employers. Workplace violence currently affects nearly two million people every year and is not expected to abate as layoffs and unemployment continue. Workplace violence-related litigation includes actions for negligent hiring, worker’s compensation and violations of OSHA. Though handbook policies cannot always prevent workplace violence, they serve an important purpose when they provide employees with avenues for reporting incidents and obtaining counseling and give guidelines for responding when violence is suspected or threatened.
4. Workplace Bullying
Workplace bullying involves repeated unreasonable acts toward an employee, either by a peer or supervisor, intended to humiliate or undermine the employee, and creating a risk to his or her health. Workplace bullying is not yet illegal, but employers have significant incentives to prevent it. The costs of bullying to an employer include training new employees to replace employees who leave as a result of bullying; decreased productivity as employees cope with bullying incidents; and harm to an employer’s reputation. Employers should seriously consider revising their employee handbooks to reflect a zero tolerance, anti-bullying policy as part of their commitment to a safe and healthy work environment. Such policies should include a process for reporting bullying, as well as responding to and investigating complaints of bullying.
5. New NLRB Rules
While Congress did not pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), employers should be prepared for changes in union organizing tactics and procedural requirements, and should make sure handbooks are up to date on union issues. Agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), have been attempting to adopt, through rulemaking, many of the reforms sought in the failed EFCA legislation. The NLRB proposed various rules in 2011 that support unionization, including rules that would lead to significantly speedier union elections. Another requires all employers to post a notification by Jan.31, 2012, informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). While the Final Rule associated with the Notice Posting requirement is being legally challenged, employers must stay informed of this issue to ensure compliance.
6. Social Networking and Blogging
As Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter accounts become more prevalent, employers should consider handbook policies that address employment issues that may arise from these social media. Such policies should address what communications are prohibited and the consequences of “misuse” of social networking related to the workplace. Employers should place limits on posting confidential or proprietary company information, as well as photos taken at the workplace. In addition, handbook policies should address the use of social media to disparage or harass other employees or the company. However, employers must be aware of the NLRB’s recently ruling, which established that the NLRA gives employees the right to communicate about wages, hours and other conditions with one another via social media. Specifically, in May 2011, the NLRB ruled that an employer violated the NLRA when it fired an employee for publicly discussing “protected concerted activity” via Facebook.
7. More FMLA Changes
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division recently issued Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2010-3, clarifying a provision of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), declaring that either day-to-day care or financial support may establish an in loco parentis relationship. According to the DOL, an employee who does not have a biological or legal relationship with the child, but assumes the responsibilities of a parent with regard to the child, may qualify for FMLA leave under the same circumstances as a biological parent. The interpretation also recognizes nontraditional family arrangements, including adopted children of same-sex partners, and states that an employee who will share equally in the raising of a child with the child’s biological parent also is entitled to leave for the child’s birth.
8. Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Nearly half the states and the District of Columbia have laws that prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. Some of these states also specifically prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. As a result, employers should be mindful of this issue in revising their EEO policies.
9. Benefits Provisions
Many employers have made changes to their benefits plans in 2011 and should be sure their handbooks accurately reflect those changes. Furthermore, the handbooks should state that the language in the benefit plan controls if the handbook summary and the plan language differ.
10. Adverse Weather/Other Closings
More companies are incorporating adverse weather policies into their handbooks to provide guidance on when the business will close and how weather-related absences or shutdowns will affect employee compensation. Employers need look no further than Hurricane Irene in 2011 for an example of a natural disaster that forced businesses to close, some for many days if not weeks. Policies should address such considerations as shutting down the workplace, working remotely, cross training and returning to work as well as compensation issues for both exempt and non-exempt employees. Employers must ensure such policies are in compliance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, if applicable, and other similar state laws, which require notice to employees in the event of a plant closing.
Employers should seek counsel before revising their handbooks. There is no one-size-fits-all employee handbook or policy. The laws with which employers must comply vary greatly depending on individualized factors, such as an employer’s size and location. In addition, when employers adopt new policies, they should make sure their employees are aware of the changes, obtain signed acknowledgement forms from their employees and implement the new policies consistently.
If you need to update your employee handbook or have any questions about adopting or implementing new policies, please contact the author of this article, Daniel A. Kaufman, an attorney with Michael Best & Friedrich LLP in Chicago, Ill. He can be reached at dakaufman@michaelbest.com or (312) 222-0800.
Janitorial Company Must Pay Back Wages
Article courtesy of BuffaloNews.com
A janitorial company has paid $22,000 in back wages and damages to 26 employees who worked at Ralph Wilson Stadium after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found it didn’t pay them proper minimum wages or overtime compensation.
Knights Facilities Management, a Michigan-based company that provides grounds maintenance and janitorial services at the stadium, was cited for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage, overtime and record- keeping provisions.
The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division’s Buffalo Area Office reviewed the company’s records and timesheets and found employees were required to work long hours and often weekend shifts during the Buffalo Bills’ home games and other special events. But the company avoided paying overtime by switching workers to different payrolls when their hours went beyond 40 for the week. It also did not calculate all the hours employees worked and didn’t combine hours from different duties.
“To see janitors fall below the mini-mum wage while providing services to an industry that makes billions of dollars every year is extremely disappointing and legally unacceptable,” said Michael Fitzgerald, the Wage and Hour Division’s area director in Buffalo, in a release.
The Out of the Box Time and Attendance system helps you to avoid situations like this by providing accurate tracking of an employee’s time spent on the job. Overtime thresholds are set in the rule of pay (shift) the employee is scheduled to, so that overtime hours are automatically granted and paid at time and a half. With the labor distribution option, you can even track how much time an employee worked on various duties and assign different rates for each duty, if required. If the employee is only paid a minimum rate regardless of the duty, that can be specified in their employee record.
The program’s reports and Cards screen allow you to view a running total of an employee’s hours to make sure all hours are calculated properly.
To view Smart Clock’s Out of the Box software Click Here.
How Long Do We Need to Keep All This Stuff?
Article courtesy of Our Colorado News.
by Jack Goldberg
Every year at this time, our phones ring with questions such as “How long do I have to keep these personnel files?” or “Do we really need to hang on to these time cards?”
How about some guidelines?
Below is a short list to guide you in your year-end cleaning. Remember that many federal and state laws include provisions related to record retention. While the following does not anticipate every piece of paper, these general, and usually generous, guidelines anticipate the most common record retention questions.
Employee Compensation: Your payroll department should keep payroll records (including records of wages, hours, collective bargaining agreements, employment contracts, date of payment, amount of payment, record of straight and overtime earnings etc.) for three years. The actual time cards can be discarded after two years.
Leave of Absence Records: FMLA wants you to retain records related to leaves of absence for three years. This includes basic payroll data, FMLA leave dates, and copies of leave notices.
I-9 Documentation: Employers must retain completed I-9s for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later.
Pre-Employment Records (i.e. job postings, ads, applications, resumes): The Age Discrimination in Employment Act requires you to keep advertisements, job applications and resumes for one year from the date of the event.
OSHA Logs: This law mandates that logs be kept for five years following the end of the year to which the records relate.
Employment Records (including promotions, demotions, transfers, terminations): Companies must keep these records for one year from the date the record was made or the termination action was taken, whichever is later.
EEO-1 and Affirmative Action Plans: These retention requirements are not specified by law. However, EEO-1′s and AAP’s must be updated annually, and the most recent version must be available for review.
Documents Related to Enforcement Actions: If your company is being investigated for some reason, you should retain everything until the action is completely finalized. For example, if you are audited for alleged wage and hour violations, you must not discard wage information related to the time period being audited. If you are responding to an EEOC complaint, you must retain all the documentation related to that complaint and employee.
What about electronic documents?
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) were recently revised to address issues of discovery as they relate to electronically stored information. (Basically, the FRCP are the court rules and procedures attorneys follow when conducting civil suits.) The FRCP always included rules related to the retention and discovery of documents relevant to litigation. However, because so many documents are now stored electronically, the rules needed to be updated.
- Talk with your IT department to determine what your company policy or practice is related to data storage and retention.
- If not done already, draft a Document Storage and Retention policy. This policy will set out procedures for scheduled destruction of documents and electronically stored information. Have your attorney review your policy.
- Draft a policy to address document preservation should litigation be threatened. The rules change if you think you will be sued.
- Communicate your policies to all employees who may create or have access to electronic data.
If you are like most businesses, you create and save an enormous amount of data — both electronically and hardcopy. This is a good opportunity to review and update your policies related to retention; it is a good preventative measure to save time and expense should your company ever, unfortunately, be named in a lawsuit.
How do we get rid of it?
Please be careful when disposing of documents. Imagine the outcry if you simply put in the Dumpster documents listing employees’ Social Security numbers, addresses or private medical information. Many states have laws requiring organizations to carefully maintain security and confidentiality when disposing of files — generally requiring that you render the information unreadable or undecipherable.
Office shredders are appropriate for daily use but not very efficient for large volumes or documents. A better solution is to utilize a document management company.
Whether you are still working on your end of the year file purges or are anticipating office spring cleaning, we hope you will refer to these guidelines. If you need further assistance on this or any other Human Resource issue, call on Forté Human Resources.
Smart Clock’s Out of the Box software allows you to set the number of days you wish to keep punch card records on file in your hard disk. Follow our instructions below.
Days On File: The valid value for this field is from 1 to 9,999 days. Set this to the number of days you wish to keep punch card records on file in your hard disk. Please Note: By setting this field to 9,999, the program will keep a punch history of over 27.3 years.
Keeping Time – Volume 4
Biometric – Proper Finger Placement
The basics for successful usage of the Smart Clock fingerprint sensor are simple, but important. Performance improves with consistent finger placement. It is important to make sure that the position of your finger allows the fingerprint sensor to record the unique features of your fingerprint. Here are some simple suggestions to follow for trouble-free fingerprint recognition.
The Ridge-Lock is the raised plastic piece underneath the sensor. It is used to help guide your finger onto the sensor and to discharge static electricity prior to touching the sensor. The Ridge-Lock was designed to help maintain “consistent” finger positioning. With your fingertip raised, slide your finger across the Ridge-Lock, until it “locks” into place within the first indentation of your finger. Next, lower your finger onto the sensor and apply moderate pressure. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:
- Sliding your fingertip into place while making contact with the sensor instead of lowering your fingertip onto the sensor can cause distortion of the fingerprint and degrade the image quality. Keep your fingertip raised while sliding across the Ridge-Lock and then lower your fingertip onto the sensor when in position.
- Rotating or twisting your finger into position will also cause distortion of the fingerprint and make verification less reliable.
- Positioning your finger more to one side than the other and leaving a portion of the sensor exposed will degrade image quality. Try to center your fingertip into position.
- Placing your finger at an angle to the Ridge-Lock is another common mistake. Rotation of your fingertip will not provide a reliable image of the fingerprint for verification.
If you follow these suggestions, you will see some improvement in the Smart Clock’s ability to recognize your fingerprint.
Monthly Tip
Use the Exception List report to quickly isolate missing punches (MP) and absences (NP) for any date range.
The report will only show those employees that have the specified notations applied to them. To tag the MP and NP notes, just left click and then right click on each one. This will highlight them.
Monthly Trick
Use the Criteria option to create a custom filter for the CARDS window that will focus on just tracking down missing punches (MP) and absences (NP).
The example above focuses on the current period. Some companies create one custom criteria for the current period and another for the previous period, so they can switch back and forth between them. The notes must be entered in capital letters in the “from” or “to” fields for the criteria to work.
Copyright © 2012 Desco Industries Inc. All rights reserved
Phone: (909) 664-9980 Fax: (909) 627-7449 Website: SmartClock.com EMail: Service@SmartClock.com
Florida Minimum Wage Inches Up
Article courtesy of News-Press.com
written by Tim Engstrom
Florida’s lowest-paid workers will get a raise on Jan. 1 with an increased Florida minimum wage, but local employers say most workers — except tipped employees like restaurant servers — won’t notice because they already earn more.
Florida’s minimum hourly wage will jump 4.9 percent to $7.67 an hour. That becomes an extra $14.40 for a 40-hour week for a total gross pay of $306.80 for the week. That adds up to annual pay of $15,953.60.
The minimum hourly wage for tipped employees jumps to $4.65.
“That’s a steeper increase than we have normally seen, and even though few employers pay at the minimum, it could potentially impact some employers who are going through a tough time,” said Barbara Hartman, spokeswoman for Southwest Florida Works.
Florida voters approved a state minimum wage in November 2004. Since then, a new state minimum is calculated each Sept. 30 according to the Consumer Price Index. A year ago, Florida officials said the wage calculation actually fell below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and so no increase was originally planned for the year. However, workers’ rights groups, led by the National Employment Law Project, challenged the calculation and a court ruling reset Florida’s minimum wage to $7.31 in June.
The state doesn’t track the number of workers who earn only the minimum wage, but about 10.5 percent of Lee County hourly workers, or about 19,000 people, earned less than $9.25, according to 2010 data.
“I make a point of not only paying people above the minimum wage, but above what the market is paying for the same job,” said Chris Davison, vice president of operations for the Island Inn on Sanibel. “I would rather compensate people a little more than have to pay to constantly replace employees.”
Davison said housekeepers are typically among the lowest paid workers in the hospitality industry and he pays an entry level wage of $9 an hour for the work.
The average entry-level pay for a housekeeping job in Lee County is $8.24 an hour, according to state data.
But minimum wage is more commonly paid to restaurant servers, said Grant Phelan, director of operations for Pinchers Crab Shack, which operates seven area restaurants.
“An increase like this has a big impact,” said Phelan, who said the restaurant group pays 100,000 hours of pay a year to servers.
“We always try not to raise prices, but at some point you have to pass some of those costs along to customers,” Phelan said. “It’s the second-largest expense we have behind food costs.”
Fran Myers, who owns the Red Coconut RV Resort on Fort Myers Beach along with her husband, Tom, said she thinks paying a little higher wage is better for business in the long run.
“I’ve never paid anyone only the minimum wage,” Myers said. “When you get a good employee, you have to take good care of them. If you don’t, it just becomes a revolving door.”
Myers said maintenance workers are among the lowest paid of her employees and she pays an entry-level wage of $10 an hour.
“Nobody can afford to live here on minimum wage,” she said.
Missing Punches
The Out of the Box program has the ability to indicate when an employee has missed a punch based on settings established in the Company window and the employee’s schedule. The program always requires an even number of punches in order to calculate totals. The Adjustment to Hours (CARDS) window or the reports may be used to pinpoint missing punches. They clearly display “MP” (missing punch) or “NP” (no punch) notations for days that the employees forgot to punch in or out or simply did not use the Smart Clock.
Entering missing punches is essential to obtaining accurate calculations of hours in the CARDS window, the reports and export files. If incorrect total hours are appearing, missing punches will need to be corrected in the program. After entering missing punches, the program will automatically re-calculate employee hours. Entering missing punches can be done by:
- Selecting Adjustment to Hours from the Browse-Time Cards section of the main menu or clicking on the CARDS button on the dashboard and entering the employee punch data.
- Selecting Use Computer as Time Clock from the Utility section of the main menu to enter punches.
The Out of the Box program also offers the option to automatically fix missing punches during polling. With this feature checked, the program will insert a punch from the start time or end time of the rule of pay the employee is assigned to for that day in their schedule. So, if an employee clocked in, but forgot to clock out, their normal exit time from the rule of pay will be inserted as their out punch for the day.
To view more information on Out of the Box Software Click Here
CT, RI contractor scofflaws in fed crosshairs
Connecticut and Rhode Island building contractors’ inability to properly track workers’ wages and time sheets according to federal fair labor guidelines is drawing scrutiny of regulators, authorities say.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced Wednesday the launch of a multiyear enforcement initiative focused on the construction industries in both states.
At issue, the agency says, is their widespread noncompliance with the minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The goal of this initiative is to remedy systemic violations and promote sustained compliance among contractors and subcontractors working on construction projects, the agency said in a statement.
Similarly, state labor investigators routinely show up at job sites statewide unannounced and find enough worker misclassification violations to order the sites shut down until they do comply.
“The Wage and Hour Division is employing new strategies to combat this ‘race to the bottom’ culture so that construction workers will not see their wages and benefits undercut, and law-abiding employers will not face unfair competition from contractors who take advantage of workers so eager for a job that they will accept substandard wages and unsafe conditions,” said Neil Patrick, the division’s Hartford district director.
Since 2008, Patrick says, the Hartford office has conducted 183 investigations of construction industry employers in Connecticut and Rhode Island, recovering nearly $3.3 million in back wages for 1,226 employees.
Typical violations include failing to pay employees for all hours worked, paying piece-work rates that result in pay below the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, failing to pay overtime compensation and misclassifying covered workers as independent contractors to circumvent wage laws.
Article reproduced from Hartford Business Journal Online
San Francisco: Be sure to adjust your pay rates accordingly
“Beginning January 1, 2012, all employers must pay to each employee who performs work in San Francisco (including temporary and part-time employees) wages not less than $10.24 per hour.”
For more information from the City and County of San Francisco Labor Standards Enforcement department, Click Here
How to Utilize Smart Clock Technical Support
The Smart Clock Time and Attendance Systems include 90 days of technical support. This support is offered at no charge and begins on the date the system is shipped. This support includes:
- LiveHelp available 9:00 AM EST – 5:00 PM PST, Monday – Friday
- On-line technical support available 24/7 with our FAQ
- You can give a Smart Clock technician immediate access to view, diagnose and fix any Smart Clock problems directly on your computer through GoToMeeting
- Software installation and database setup
- Software and hardware support via e-mail and telephone Hardware installation and Ethernet setup
After the 90 days we also offer a 1 year unlimited technical support agreement to continue with the above.
To see the 1 Year Maintenance Agreement Click Here
Support is also provided via the user’s manual and built-in help system located within the software.
Main Address: 3651 Walnut Ave, Chino CA 91710
Support EMail: Service@SmartClock.com
Support Phone Number: (909) 627-2453
Fax Number: (951) 755-8848
