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“I typically provide an Employment Agreement for people I hire. Lately, I’ve been a bit worried about some of the language in it. What should be included?”
Your HR Survival Tip
An Employment Agreement is not legally required and, in most situations, not recommended. The problem is that something you have put in an Agreement may conflict with your Employee Handbook or other policies. In addition, you now have to review all the Agreements each time you create a new one to ensure there’s no discrimination.
You might want or need an Employment Agreement when hiring a C-level employee (CEO, COO, CFO, etc.), for example, because they often negotiate special things, such as retention bonus, relocation, bonus based on company changes, etc. However, there are other documents you should be using for the majority of your employees:
An offer letter that merely includes the basics: title, start date, salary/wage, at-will language, and a due date for the offer to be accepted. The Employee Handbook includes your benefit plans and various policies. Keeping everything in the Handbook or some other manual ensures all employees are being given the same information and benefits. Too often, when a letter provides details about the [click to read more …]
“I buy a new employment law poster every other year. However, several of my employees work remotely and have never even seen the poster. Am I okay as long as I have it in the office?”
Your HR Survival Tip
You have compliance issues in a couple of ways. The law about the employment law posters states they must be placed in a location employees frequent… and they need to be current or you might as well be hanging wallpaper.
For a very long time you were fine buying a new poster every other year. However, over the past 5 or more years, either the state or federal government has been making changes every year and even mid-year. This year is a perfect example. We have several poster sections that have been added or updated, including:
CA Transgender (5/2018) CA Whistleblowers (no date on form) CA Hate Violence aka Ralph (12/2017) CA Workplace Discrimination (12/2017)
Once you know you have current posters, you need to solve the problem of remote employees (those who don’t come into the office very often or at all). They must legally still have easy access to the poster information. Fortunately, every section on that [click to read more …]
“I have a janitorial company and heard about a new law that affects my industry. What do I need to do?”
Your HR Survival Tip
California’s EDD (Employment Development Division) has finally noticed the janitorial industry. This new regulation will change the industry and level the playing field when competing for contracts.
The janitorial industry has, historically, involved numerous independent contractors instead of employees. Some companies have already learned, through EDD audits and subsequent fines, that this isn’t a viable business model. When you add the recent CA Supreme Court ruling on independent contractors to the mix, you have a big problem if you haven’t converted your contractors to employees.
There isn’t really a way to work around this because you must register once you have one (1) janitor/cleaning person working for you plus one other employee… which usually will be you, the business owner. You’ll notice the word “employee” wasn’t used to define the janitor/cleaning person. That’s because they could be (1) an employee, (2) an independent contractor, or (3) a franchisee who is performing the janitor role.
The new regulation states you must register your company with the Labor Commissioner between July 1st and September 30, 2018. You [click to read more …]
“I hear people talk about vacation and PTO but aren’t they the same thing?”
Your HR Survival Tip
The confusion between vacation and PTO may be the fact that they both provide paid time off for employees. However, these plans have important differences.
We are all familiar with vacation where we earn paid time off, usually over time. The “official” PTO (Paid Time Off, with caps) bundles vacation, sick leave, and personal time into one program. Both were designed as tools to help with retention and to provide time for employees to relax and avoid burnout. Vacation and PTO plans are optional for companies. So far, the government doesn’t require personal paid time off.
Vacation
You have a lot of freedom in designing a vacation plan. Common choices includes the length of the eligibility period, different amounts based on the level of your position or longevity, accrued or dropped in, etc. Keep in mind that any unused vacation time earned by the employee must be paid out upon termination. You’ll need a cap to ensure you aren’t paying out months’ worth of unused time. However, legally, there is a minimum cap you need to allow. Vacation time, in California, [click to read more …]
“I have an employee who isn’t doing well but I’m reluctant to fire him because I’d have to pay unemployment. What should I do?”
Your HR Survival Tip
Worrying about whether an employee will collect unemployment is never a good reason to keep a bad employee. That bad employee will bring down morale and productivity in your company.
EDD (CA’s Employment Development Department) keeps track of all your employees and you are legally required to notify EDD each time you hire an employee. Payroll companies will usually do this for you but you want to make sure that’s happening. This is how they know who has been working with you (legally).
Your initial unemployment rate is pre-determined by your industry’s standard for unemployment claims. Whether it goes up or down is based on the quantity and size of claims you have. However, it seems like it’s really hard to lower your rate. The monies paid through your taxes are put into a state pool and they track your company’s share of the pool.
When an employee files a claim, EDD looks back at the employee’s earnings over the last 4 or 5 full quarters to determine the amount of weekly [click to read more …]
“I am expecting money from my receivables and an investor. However, right now I’m strapped for cash for payroll. What are my options?”
Your HR Survival Tip
Whenever money is tight, you need to understand your legal obligations and work to satisfy those before going further. Payroll is one of those obligations.
There are a few ways you can reduce your current payroll cost, which is often one of your largest operating costs. However, you cannot legally withhold or delay paychecks. An employee must have their paycheck within 7 or 10 calendar days after the period worked. The difference of 7 versus 10 is based on which payroll cycle you have (i.e., semi-monthly, weekly, etc.). No matter what your employees might say or agree to; you must pay on time.
You also can’t move the pay date. Even if the new date is within the required time frame, another rule is that you need to keep to the promised schedule. If you’ve said the pay date is the 5th and the 20th, then you must stick with that.
Consider just being honest with employees that the company is going through financial issues and you need to make some immediate changes. [click to read more …]
“I want to hire a few high school kids for the summer. Do I need to do anything special?”
Your HR Survival Tip
Schools are ending and students are eager to get a summer job. However, when hiring anyone under 18 years of age, you want to be careful of the child labor laws. There are differences for the age of the minor, as well as whether they have graduated.
A minor, for the purpose of California’s child labor laws, is considered to be anyone under 18 who has not yet graduated high school or passed the High School Proficiency Exam. However, federal law doesn’t care about schooling and that law applies to everyone under 18 years of age.
Minors need a Certificate of Age form completed and signed by the employer and parent or legal guardian. This form is also called Statement of Intent to Employ a Minor and Request for a Work Permit. It has a long title but is basically a pretty simple form. This is where you’ll list the hours and days you intend to have the minor work. This form also covers you for the federal law. Even a minor in your own family needs [click to read more …]
Part 1 of this article covered pregnancy-related leaves to the delivery and medically-related disability period. Part 2 will discuss the options for the employee once the doctor has released her from the medical disability (usually with 8 weeks from the date of birth).
Your HR Survival Tip
Once the medical disability period is over, additional leave is considered baby bonding time off. Baby bonding is time off for either parent to bond with the baby within the first 12 months from the date of birth. All leaves available for baby bonding are unpaid time off and availability and job protection is dependent on the size of the company.
Many people believe Paid Family Leave is a leave to which they are entitled but that’s not true. This is actually a supplemental pay plan that is available ONLY IF the company or a law allows the employee to have baby bonding time off. The employee must qualify for a leave of absence before Paid Family Leave is available.
Leaves in companies with less than 20 employees — The only leave available in companies of this size is a personal leave of absence. The company is not required to offer [click to read more …]
The law and processes about pregnancy leave are often misunderstood and a concern with smaller employers. This is part 1 of 2 articles that will, hopefully, answer many of your questions.
Your HR Survival Tip
A pregnancy is treated the same as any other medical disability and, for that reason, everything is tied to a doctor’s note. In California, this is the most protected leave we have, over time they have closed all the loopholes. You are subject to this law when you have 5 or more employees, counting the owner(s).
Upon hearing an employee is pregnant, the company should provide the employee the following:
Pregnancy Disability Leave notice Pregnancy Disability Leave brochure State Disability Insurance brochure Paid Family Leave brochure
Doctor’s notes help protect the employee because it keeps the absences under the pregnancy-related disability. Therefore, if the employee misses work due to morning sickness or any other reason remotely tied to a real or perceived pregnancy, a doctor’s note is needed. The doctor should be asking the company to accommodate these absences. You want the doctor’s note even if the employee has ample sick/PTO time available due to the protections. If your employee is coming in late, etc. [click to read more …]
“I have a bookkeeping company and use independent contractors to service my clients. These are usually part-time people working from home. Does the new court decision change how I do this?”
Your HR Survival Tip
The California Superior Court recently issued a ruling about a delivery company’s truck drivers who were classified as independent contractors. This court ruling was specific to these drivers being eligible as part of a class action lawsuit but it may be the start of changing the qualifiers for independent contractors in general.
In the past, the Borello test was used and looked at numerous factors when EDD was deciding if someone was an independent contractor (IC). This new ruling used only three items in their test. These aren’t new but it does add focus:
The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring company in connection with the performance of the work. — Often a company wants to provide training, lock down work hours, or have other forms of control that aren’t allowed when using ICs. The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of your business. — If you have a bookkeeping company, you can’t use ICs to provide [click to read more …]
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