|
|
“I have a couple of employees who like long lunches and sometimes take 2 hours. They still work 8 hours but do I need to let them continue this?”
Your HR Survival Tip
There are practical and legal issues to consider when looking at long lunch breaks. While California requires non-exempt (hourly) employees to take at least a 30-minute meal break, the state can frown on breaks of more than one hour.
You do not have to allow any longer than 30 minutes for meal breaks but consider allowing just slightly longer (35-40 minutes) simply because you need to make sure they take at least 30 minutes. It’s hard to take exactly 30 minutes every day unless you have a very rigid schedule.
On a practical side, even if the employees ensure they work 8 hours, do those specific 8 hours work for you? If your business hours are normally 8a-5p but these employees stay until 6p to make up for the long lunch, is that last hour as productive for the business? Probably not, if they are working with customers and there are no customers after closing.
On the legal side, if you require the employee to take more [click to read more …]
“My company is growing and I am curious if I will be subject to more laws.”
Your HR Survival Tip
Whether or not you’ll be subject to more laws depends on your current size. Employment laws are often connected to the number of employees you have, have had, or will have.
Some laws count all employees, others may also add consultants and temps. You should also count anyone who is actively working in the business even if they don’t receive a paycheck (like a spouse). The following list includes only the basic and most used laws so please make sure you find out what other laws may affect you.
0+ Employees = Wage Theft Prevention Act; Wage and Hour Laws (e.g., minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks)
5+ Employees = The above plus Discrimination; Pregnancy Disability
15+ Employees = All the above plus American Disability Act; Organ and Bone Marrow Donor Paid Leave of Absence
20+ Employees = All the above plus New Parent Leave Act
25+ Employees = All the above plus Alcohol/Drug Rehabilitation; Domestic Violence Leave; Illiteracy Accommodation; Military Spouse Leave; School Activities Leave
50+ Employees = All the above plus Family and Medical Leaves (FMLA/CFRA); Mandatory [click to read more …]
“I’m trying to understand the amount of sick time each employee gets. Is there a simple method?”
Your HR Survival Tip
You’re in California so it will never be simple. However, it’s also not that difficult to determine if the right amount of sick leave is being provided.
First, determine which sick leave law fits your company. There is the basic state law of 24/48 (24 usable hours each plan year, 48 accrued hours). Then make sure you know which local sick leave laws apply to your employees… there are 29 localities with their own version and that number continues to grow. If an employee spends more than 2 hours in a locale with a different sick leave law, you need to use the most generous one.
Next, check your payroll system to determine how the sick leave is set up for you. Too many times, we find part-time employees accruing at a weekly rate. Nearly all payroll systems are capable of using an hourly accrual and that’s the easiest method because they only earn sick time based on actual hours worked. You can set up different plans for salaried, hourly full-time, hourly part-time, and based on locale.
You can [click to read more …]
“I like to have criminal background checks run on applicants. Things have changed lately and now I’m not sure how to do it legally.”
Your HR Survival Tip
California made it more time-consuming to run background checks with the “ban the box” law that went into effect 1/1/2018. The actual process of requesting the background check is the same but everything surrounding it has changed. Below is a simplified version of the rules when including criminal history in the request:
First, you must provide a written offer letter before conducting the background check. The letter needs to state the offer is contingent upon the results of the report. The candidate must sign an authorization form giving you permission to run the check. You must provide the candidate a copy of the report unless they have specifically waived that right in writing. The waiver is often a checkbox on the authorization form. However, if the report has information that makes you want to renege on the offer (aka adverse action), you must provide the report even if they waived. You cannot just blindly renege on your offer… what is on the report must relate to the position for which they were [click to read more …]
“I have employees who take long bathroom breaks but I know they’re just on their phone making calls or checking social media. How can I control this?”
Your HR Survival Tip
It’s difficult to tell someone they can’t take a restroom break when asked, isn’t it? And if it was a quick trip, you wouldn’t even give it another thought. But it’s those 15-20-25 minute bathroom or rest breaks that hurt.
For better or worse, California is very specific about meal and rest breaks… when, where, and how long. This is one of those times the rules can work to your benefit. If you don’t already have a rest break policy, it’s time to let us create one for you.
Employees are allowed an uninterrupted 10-minute paid rest break when working “the greater of 4 hours.” In English, that means you might want to give them a rest break if they are working more than 2.5 hours. In a normal 8-hour workday, this means 2 rest breaks: one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon.
While you can’t control what an employees does on their rest break or where they go, you can discipline them if they start taking more than 10 minutes. [click to read more …]
“I have an employee who seemingly just disappeared one day last week and I haven’t heard from him since. I’ve heard other employers have similar problems. What’s going on?”
Your HR Survival Tip
We have heard this complaint from numerous employers. It turns out there’s a name for it: ghosting!
You have been ghosted if you’ve had a job candidate who suddenly stops returning your calls and emails. Or a new hire who doesn’t actually show up for work on their first day or heads out for a break or lunch and never returns. Of course, the most common seems to be the no-show / no-call employees who decide not to come to work one day and you don’t hear from them again.
The good news, if it can be called that, is you’re not alone. The bad news is that it seems likely it will continue to happen. The causes are blamed on several things:
Candidates are finally turning the tables and giving the silent treatment back to companies. The job market is so healthy that people are testing to see what they can get but it may not be the best fit so they don’t show up [click to read more …]
Companies often tend to think they will never be caught or they forget to do their full due diligence when it comes to employment law compliance. However, both state and federal agencies are working hard to catch offenders and new laws are helping them.
Cheesecake Factory
Various local Cheesecake Factory locations and its janitorial subcontractors were found liable by the Labor Commissioner for wage theft. This means employees were not being paid properly and in accordance with California’s Wage Theft Prevention Act. If you ever wondered why you have to complete that wage theft prevention notice for each hourly employee, this is why.
Investigators discovered the janitors were often not receiving their meal and rest breaks and were not being paid the overtime hours they typically worked. Since missed meal and rest breaks require the employee to receive penalty pay, this becomes a wage issue in addition to the overtime. The Labor Commissioner’s Office is focused on wages or other earnings due employees and helps the employees receive everything they earned.
Since it was the janitorial service with the improperly paid employees, you probably wonder why Cheesecake Factory was pulled into this. Especially since Cheesecake Factory hired an outside vendor [click to read more …]
“I worry about how to interview so I won’t ask illegal questions. How do I know what I can or can’t ask?”
Your HR Survival Tip
When writing a job ad or job description or interviewing, it’s critical you focus on the job duties and what it takes for someone to do those duties. Every sentence, every question should be about the job.
It’s easy to become discriminatory when you don’t focus on the job. When you start thinking about the person instead of the job, you’ve lost your focus. It’s okay to ask questions that relate to your culture because that’s still a business focus… just remember to ask those questions the right way.
One of the newer laws in California bans us from asking questions about previous wages. The point was to level out wages based on the job, not wage history. In addition, it prevents us from making decisions about a person’s ability based on how much they had been making.
Age discrimination is alive and well… ask anyone over 50 who has been looking for a job. There are many ways age discrimination shows up:
Instead of saying you need at least 5 years of experience, [click to read more …]
“I just discovered an ex-employee of mine, Mary, has been contacting my clients trying to get their business. How can I stop her?”
Your HR Survival Tip
In business, we are always competing for clients. In California, you have fewer options available to you to prevent “client theft” by your ex-employees.
When you have employees, you want and need to have agreements or policies in place that address this. In an Employee Handbook you might have confidentiality and/or proprietary information policies. Many companies have an Employee Non-Disclosure Agreement. However, in the end, these are merely deterrents.
Your client list (and the revenue from them) is what you are really trying to protect. You need that smoking gun… absolute proof they have stolen your company property (i.e., client list). Have you found an email where they sent a copy of your client list to their home email? Did you see your client list sticking out of their backpack or purse? A policy stating an ex-employee may not contact your clients for a year or two after termination is truly only effective if you had an ethical employee.
You should always be thinking about that client list. Do you provide business cell [click to read more …]
“I have 2 employees I’d like to pay a per diem wage so they don’t have to track their time. Is there a minimum I must pay?”
Your HR Survival Tip
There are certain positions, such as dental hygienists, where per diem pay gained notice and popularity. However, we’re in California and… as you already know … nothing is ever simple here.
The thing you must always remember is that California, unlike most states, has the 8-hour workday before you start paying overtime. The only thing that can alter the 8-hour day is the implementation of an Alternative Workweek filed with the state. Per diem pay falls apart when you focus on the laws: (1) You must pay at least minimum wage for each hour worked. (2) You must pay overtime for anything over 8 hours in a day.
If you have a per diem employee, you still need them to use your timekeeping system. This information is the only proof you have that this employee received at least minimum wage for all time worked. However, you’ll still pay overtime on top of the per diem pay if they work more than 8 hours.
When does per diem work? Employees [click to read more …]
|
|
