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Dear HR, At one of our sites two employees went into the restroom, and were in there for an extended period of time. When they came out, the supervisor went in and noticed a strong smell of marijuana. This incident happened at public restroom, so its impossible to say if there was anyone else in the restrooms of the times of the employees. Are we within our rights to drug test the two employee’s in […]

Dear HR, We have interested applicants do an approximate 2 hour working interview to confirm if we would like to hire them.   Decided not to hire a recent interviewee – Is working interview pay mandatory? Answer: All applicants must be compensated at least minimum wage for ‘working interviews’ whether they are hired or not. BOLI: “The law has defined ’employed’ to be anytime an employee is ‘suffered or permitted to work.’ Work time is […]

Dear HR, Our company has an annual Christmas party during the holiday season. One of our employees does not celebrate the holidays so in an attempt to accommodate and since it is really more of a year-end employee thank you dinner we were thinking of renamed as such.  Is there an issue with calling it a Christmas party? Answer: It’s great that you have decided to reward your employees with a year-end employee thank you […]

Dear HR, An employee has had a death in their family, however rather than the employee communicating directly – their spouse has informed us that we need to give said employee time off work and pick up work property at their home in order to relieve the employee of “on call” duties. Although we accommodated the request – we have had previous conversations with the spouse about inserting themselves into employee’s work business and that […]

Dear HR, I would like to address the issue of employees using cell phones and internet on work time. Do you have any suggestions on rules or verbiage to include?   Answer: We would advise adding cell phone and internet use policies and expectations to your employee handbook including outlining: Electronic Assets Usage – with specific guidelines on appropriate work related internet and email use Social Media – outlining how and when your brand should […]

Dear HR, I recently terminated an employee. I personally loaned the employee $500, of which $300 is still owed. Can I deduct the balance owed from the final paycheck? Answer: An Employer may make a deduction from a final paycheck for a cash loan to an employee ONLY IF the employee has voluntarily signed a loan agreement, and the loan was for the employee’s sole benefit. The deduction may not exceed 25{0c2d428c3cefef4a77c472786cabf3d957ca1c1fde265c02f19cd1ec2d7db907} of the employee’s disposable […]