Join us on Thursday July 21, 2011 from 2:00 – 3:00p.m. for a webinar titled The Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA affects and needs to be understood by every employer. This webinar will visit the most important facets including exemptions, overtime calculations and some recent additions to the law. Avoid hassles and fines by making sure you are in compliance!
Colchester, VT – HRSentry, a leading provider of online services for human resource regulatory compliance, has partnered with LegalZoom, the nation’s leading online legal document service, to form a strategic partnership. This partnership will give LegalZoom users access to HR Made Simple, HRSentry’s online human resource center, as part of the LegalZoom Business Resource Network. The partnership provides LegalZoom customers with access to federal and state employment laws, and human resources forms, policies, procedures, posters and training.
LegalZoom provides a simple, cost-effective way for people to establish a new legal business entity. HRSentry’s services are offered as part of The Business Resource Network, a group of carefully selected business service partners that LegalZoom has chosen to recommend to its customers.
“We couldn’t be more excited about offering HRSentry to our new and existing business owners,” says Steven Chic, Director of Business Development for LegalZoom. “HRSentry’s one-stop shop for HR compliance let’s our customers focus on their business – leaving human resource compliance issues to the pros.
“Being selected as a partner on LegalZoom Business Resource Network has been an incredible experience,” said Dean Haller, founder and President of HRSentry. “This partnership is a natural fit and will give thousands of small businesses the support they need to save time and avoid costly lawsuits.”
About HRSentry
Since being founded in 2003, HRSentry’s mission has been to create, deliver, and support services and training that empower the organization to be self-sufficient in administration of its Human Resource policies, practices, and procedures. HRSentry’s services enable the user to access Human Resource forms, policies, and procedures; link to federal and state laws, regulations, and resources and expand their knowledge of HR through state-of-the-art training mediums. For more information visit www.hrsentry.com.
About LegalZoom
LegalZoom.com is the nation’s leading provider of legal documents that help people protect their families and launch their business dreams. Since its founding in 2001, more than 1 million customers have used the service to make a will or living trust, form a corporation or LLC, and apply for a copyright or trademark. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Headquartered in Glendale, California, with offices in Austin, Texas, the company has over 400 employees. For more information, visit www.legalzoom.com.
For more information contact:
Topher Liddle, HRSentry, 1-800-523-2564, topher@hrsentry.com
What does a cat’s paw have to do with managing human resources at your organization? Well, it begins with a fable about a monkey who persuades a cat to remove roasting chestnuts from smoldering embers. The cat burns his paw in the process and, you guessed it, the cat never gets his share of the chestnuts; the monkey runs off with them all.
So what does this 17th century French fable have to do with HR? The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term “cat’s paw” as a person used by another as a dupe or tool. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a ruling based on cat’s paw theory. The case involved an army reservist, Vincent Staub, who worked at a hospital. After review of his personnel file, which included a prior disciplinary action, and after speaking with his supervisors, the HR Manager made the decision to terminate him.
Staub sued for wrongful discharge, contending that he had been fired in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) based on time off for military service. The Supreme Court agreed with Staub that the prior disciplinary action in his personnel file was based on biased reporting by his supervisors who maintained an anti-military mindset. They further determined that these biased supervisors had influenced the final decision-maker, the HR Manager, when they caused the prior discipline to be entered into Staub’s records. So, while the HR manager herself showed no anti-military bias, she relied on information that was discriminatory in making the decision to terminate. Under cat’s paw theory, she served as the dupe used by the supervisors.
So what does this mean for your organization? Well, clearly, one should tread carefully with all adverse employment actions. This means thorough fact-finding investigations. You shouldn’t necessarily take a supervisor’s word alone without further digging. Review all anti-harassment policies and all grievance and investigative procedures. Train supervisors in all your policies but particularly in nondiscrimination and anti-harassment. Supervisory performance reviews should reflect how well supervisors coach and develop staff. There are never full guarantees against lawsuits, but implementing sound policies, procedures and training will keep your risk to a minimum to keep you from getting burned!
New York recently joined Illinois and Delaware on the growing list of states that allow same-sex marriage or civil unions between same-sex partners. Organizations that have operations in one or more of these states have a somewhat more complicated task when it comes to legal compliance since federal law recognizes neither same-sex marriage nor civil union partnerships.
One example of such administrative complexity is under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which provides for protected leave and benefits for covered employees who have, among other qualifying events, a need for time off from work to care for an immediate family member, including a spouse, in the case of serious illness. Under this law, the definition of spouse is simply “husband or wife, as the case may be.” Of course, employers may choose to be more generous than the law provides for and institute a policy that includes family leave to care for civil union partners, same-sex marriage partners, or even opposite sex domestic partners, if they wish.
Speaking of FMLA and immediately family members, another issue that will impact employers more and more as the nuclear family continues to diminish as an American norm, is the FMLA amendment that expands the definition of child. In addition to “a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward”, son or daughter refers to “a child of a person standing in loco parentis.” The term, in loco parentis, means “in place of a parent.” In practical terms, this means that if your employee has some parental-type responsibilities for a child, he or she can qualify for FMLA leave the same as a biological parent would. This person might be a grandparent, a civil union partner of the child’s biological or adoptive parent, or even a domestic partner of the child’s biological or adoptive parent. The deciding factor is whether or not the employee plays a parental role with the child. So while a civil union or same-sex marriage partner doesn’t qualify federally as a spouse, the person could still qualify For FMLA leave as related to a child in loco parentis.
It may seem a complicated task to stay abreast of such distinctions which is why it’s so helpful for employers to have HRSentry® at hand. Check under the HR Resources tab, then HR Topic Modules, to find the FMLA kit and other helpful kits to assist you. All the information you need, both federal and state, will be right at your fingertips.
As the saying goes, statistics don’t lie. Well, maybe they can be misleading at times. But the EEOC’s recent publishing of its chart of charges filed by individuals from 1997 through 2010 contains important information. The steepest rise in filings against employers has been in the area of retaliation. That’s when an organization is accused of taking an adverse employment action, such as termination or discipline, as a result of an employee’s engaging in a protected activity such as bringing a claim of harassment, taking protected leave or participating in protected union activity.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t legitimately fire someone who deserves it. But the message is this: before taking any sort of adverse action against an employee, make sure you have documentation that the action is related to job performance or some other legitimate reason. And if the employee has recently engaged in a protected activity, be sure to conduct a careful analysis of the circumstances and to have proper documentation to prove that your action is not retaliatory. Your best protection is to have a policy against retaliation, train your managers in it, communicate with an employee who brings forth a claim, and to document, document, document.
Subscribers to HRSentry have excellent resources at their fingertips 24/7! These include resources on retaliation, its prevention and proper termination to reduce your organization’s risk.
