Dear HR, I have an employee who is claiming sick time and wants more time off to get well and get paid for this time off. Can I require that the employee provide me with a doctor’s note verifying that he is sick and needs more time to recover? He says he doesn’t want to pay to see a doctor to get checked and get a letter.
Dear HR, Last night I had an incident with one of our employees physically grabbing some dishes out of another employee’s hand, reprimanding them, and essentially, ordering that employee around in a rude, derogatory manner. This incident was witnessed by one of our managers. I notified the bossy/grabby employee to that let them know that treating this coworker was not allowable behavior. But I want to do more. Can you give me some advice about […]
Dear HR, I have an employee that I am pretty sure that has been experiencing bullying at my workplace for the last 4 months. Some of the behavior comes from co-workers, and some of it comes from one of my shift supervisors. Can you help me understand what kind of work behavior is defined as bullying? HR Answer. Most American workers used to characterize workplace bullying as “I have a bad boss – my boss […]
Dear HR, One of our long-time employees is now on Medicare and our business would like to pay for the Medicare premiums. What is the best way for us to pay/reimburse our employee for the premiums without causing them to incur tax consequences? HR Answer, Employers can pay Medicare premiums for active employees if the company’s payment plan is integrated with the group’s health plan. For example, the linked group plan must provide minimum value by […]
Dear HR, One of my employees just informed me they received a summons to jury duty next month. Since this is a critical time for us, as seasonal business, may I ask my employee to defer jury duty? HR Answer: A person may be excused from, or defer jury duty on the basis of an undue hardship or extreme inconvenience to the person, the person’s family, the person’s employer or even the public served by […]
Dear HR, We just had our first jury duty situation come up for one of our employees. My employee is paid hourly and works during the day, so, jury duty would occur during her shift. Am I required to pay her? May I count this as PTO, Vacation or Sick leave? Please help! HR Answer: Both Federal and State wage and hour laws require all hourly and non-exempt employees be paid for all hours worked. […]
Dear HR, One of my employees was selected for service on a trial which may potentially last several months. Am I required to continue the employee’s health care insurance? HR Answer: In Oregon, there is a small-employer exemption, and the requirements do not apply for employers with nine or fewer employees. The continuation the employee’s health, disability, life or other insurance coverage would be up to a small employer’s benefits policy to define when and […]
Dear HR, I have an employee that wants to take a sick day for a previous pay period that we have already paid them for. She forgot to turn in her request in time to get it on her last paycheck. So, I have a few questions about this situation in particular, and for future reference if this comes up again. Is it possible to pay sick time after a pay period has passed? If […]
Dear HR, Several of our employees were accidentally allowed to use over 40 hours of Sick Leave during the year although our policy states the maximum use of 40 hours. This occurred because our managers did not know they needed to check the employee’s sick leave time accrued balance before approving. We will make this policy clear to all managers going forward, but our question is this: Can these excessive Sick Leave hours that were […]
Dear HR, One of our great new hires failed to follow appropriate call-in policy before missing work. We are aware that they had a death in the family – so we want to be kind and help our employee through this tough period, but how do we do that while still upholding our company policies and procedures? HR Answer: Employers often find themselves competing for good employees and struggling to retain the ones they […]
