{"id":17499,"date":"2015-08-08T20:48:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T00:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/08\/business-report-five-most-common-employer-mistakes.html"},"modified":"2015-08-08T20:48:25","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T00:48:25","slug":"business-report-five-most-common-employer-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/08\/business-report-five-most-common-employer-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Five Most Common Employer Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\"bond\n<\/div>\n
Michael Billok is an attorney associated with the firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

BY MICHAEL D. BILLOK<\/p>\n

Over the years, handling a variety of cases,
\nfrom discrimination claims to Occupational
\nSafety and Health Administration (OSHA) citations,
\nfrom wage and hour actions to charges
\nfiled with the National Labor Relations Board
\n(NLRB), there are common errors employers
\nmake in the workplace.<\/p>\n

What follows are the five most common I
\nhave seen that can potentially result in liability.
\nIf you can avoid making these unforced
\nerrors, hopefully you can avoid the resultant
\nliability as well.<\/p>\n

1. It’s just one person’s word against another’s.
\nWhat can we do?<\/p>\n

This argument arises in the context of a
\nharassment or discrimination complaint, in
\ncases where there are no witnesses and no
\ndocuments, just an accuser and accused. What
\nto do? As they say, not making a decision is a
\ndecision in itself–a decision not to credit the
\naccuser’s complaint.<\/p>\n

So make a decision. You may utilize a
\nhost of factors: body language, eye contact,
\nconsistency, plausibility, etc., to come to a
\nreasonable determination crediting the word
\nof one person over another. You may later
\ndiscover you were wrong, of course, but if you
\ndocument the explanations, you can show you
\nreached that determination reasonably, which
\nis what is required.<\/p>\n

2. Who called OSHA\/the Department of
\nLabor\/etc.?<\/p>\n

When a government agency arrives for an
\ninspection following a complaint, the first
\ntemptation is to discover the identity of the
\nperson who made the complaint. But for what
\npurpose? That person is most likely protected
\nby one or more various whistleblower statutes.<\/p>\n

You will derive no benefit from learning the
\nperson’s identity, and indeed, if you later discipline
\nor terminate the employee for legitimate
\nreasons, the fact that you knew (or sought to
\ndiscover) that the person had made a protected
\ncomplaint will only cause you difficulty.<\/p>\n

Don’t seek to discover a whistleblower’s
\nidentity; just focus on the inspection at hand.<\/p>\n

3. I’m not paying this–we didn’t authorize
\nthe overtime.<\/p>\n

These are not the words of human resource
\nprofessionals (as this would sound like nails on
\na chalkboard to them). These are the words
\nof supervisors and managers who, unfamiliar
\nwith wage and hour laws, come to the conclusion
\nthat the company should not have to pay
\nfor time worked that was not authorized. The
\ntwo-fold answer here is simple: first, any time
\nworked–authorized or not–must be paid,
\nwith the important note that an employee
\ncan be disciplined for working time that was
\nnot authorized. And second, make certain
\nyour supervisors and managers know this,
\nand that they know not to adjust time cards
\nto “correct” for time worked in excess of what
\nwas authorized.<\/p>\n

4. We have a policy here…somewhere…<\/p>\n

I commonly come across this issue when
\nresponding to a charge of harassment or discrimination.
\nSomeone at the company recalls
\na policy prohibiting the behavior an employee
\nwas accused of, goes digging around, and
\neventually blows a dust cloud off of a forgotten
\nyellowed parchment to reveal the handbook
\nor policy.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, in the eyes of a federal or
\nstate investigator, an unused or selectively utilized
\npolicy is practically equivalent to having
\nno policy at all. If your handbooks or policies
\nwere last updated sometime during the Ford
\nAdministration, it’s best you had them updated and started implementing them consistently.<\/p>\n

5. They can’t say that about the company!<\/p>\n

“Our pay is too low.” “Smith is the worst
\nsupervisor in the world; he refuses to get us
\nthe safety equipment we need.” “They work us to death–we work too many hours as it is,
\nand then they make us work mandatory OT.”<\/p>\n

You get the picture. With employees publicly
\nmaking these statements on Facebook,
\nTwitter, Tumblr, etc., it is difficult to stomach,
\nand the first natural reaction is to seek to
\nterminate the employee for disparaging the
\ncompany. But this first reaction is not the
\ncorrect one. The NLRB–which enforces the
\nNational Labor Relations Act at both unionized
\nand non-unionized workplaces–has recently
\nfocused its enforcement efforts against employers
\nthat terminate employees for engaging
\nin “protected, concerted” activity.<\/p>\n

In non-legalese, that is activity that employees
\njointly engage in to improve their working
\nconditions. And, in recent decisions the NLRB
\nhas held that a few expletives here and there
\ndo not cause employees to lose their protections.<\/p>\n

So be very cautious before taking actions
\nagainst employees for what you consider to be
\n“disparagement.”<\/p>\n

Billok is associated with Bond, Schoeneck &
\nKing’s Albany office and represents employers
\nin a variety of labor and employment related
\ncontexts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo Courtesy Bond, Schoeneck & King<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Billok is an attorney associated with the firm of Bond, Schoeneck & KingBY MICHAEL D. 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