Employment Articles - AllLaw.com

Discrimination

• Employment Discrimination Laws You Should Be Aware Of  Employment discrimination laws affect employment practices from hiring to firing employees and everything in between.
• Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Defined  Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.

Employee Privacy

• Employee Monitoring Considerations  An employer's legitimate business need to monitor employees must be balanced with the employees' right to privacy.
• Employer Use of Lie Detector Tests  Use of such tests is extremely limited and should be used with great care.
• When and How Can You Give Polygraph Tests to Employees?  You must follow very strict rules and procedures to administer such tests.

Employment References

• Avoiding Defamation in Giving Employment References  When giving employment references for a former employee, there is a danger that you may end up being sued for defamation if the reference is negative and your former employee doesn’t get the job. 

Hiring and Firing

• Activities that Constitute cause for an Employee's Dismissal Under the employment-at-will doctrine, an employer can generally fire an employee for any non-discriminatory reason or for no reason at all.
• Documentation and Procedures to Ease the Firing Process As a business owner, you can reduce your anxiety about unemployment claims and discrimination lawsuits by establishing a procedure for documenting employee problems.
• Illegal Hiring Questions  Even if an employer naively asks a certain question with no intention to discriminate, it could form the basis of a discrimination claim if the particular candidate is not hired.
• Interview Questions Do's and Don'ts  An employer must avoid asking questions that might indicate discrimination against certain individuals even if that was not the employer’s intent. 
• Items to Include as Part of Your Application for Employment  There are so many questions that employers are not allowed to ask potential employees, how do you know what information you can request on an employment application? Read on for items that should be part of your application for employment.
• Items to Include In Your Hiring Package Even if your business isn't quite ready for a personnel department, it is a good idea to put together a hiring package that will form the basis of each new employee's personnel record.
• Obtaining A Release  A release is an agreement between an employer and its former employee where the former employee agrees not to file suit against the employer in exchange for some benefit provided by the employer.
• Post Termination Employment Benefits  Federal and/or state laws may require employers to continue some benefits for former employees.
• Procedures for Documenting Disciplinary Problems  Careful documentation early on can save you a lot of headaches down the road.
• Reasons To Contest Unemployment Claims  What should you do if a fired employee makes an unemployment claim – contest it or forget about it? The answer really depends on your reason for firing the person and whether or not you can defend it.
• What You Can't Fire Someone For Under the employment-at-will doctrine, an employer can generally fire an employee for any reason or for no reason at all.
• What You Need to Know Before Hiring A Minor  If you're thinking about hiring a teenager to work in your business, you'll need to be familiar with the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• Which Workers Can You Let Go For Economic Reasons? If you need to reduce your workforce for economic reasons, you should develop a fair plan for determining which workers will be let go and which will stay.

Policies and Procedures

• How and Why to Create an Employment Manual  An employment manual lets your employees know the ground rules.

Taxes

• Employee or Independent Contractor?  In order to determine whether someone who does work for you is an employee or an independent contractor, you need to evaluate several factors regarding your relationship with the worker.
• Payroll Taxes for Independent Contractors This article describes the four categories of workers that are considered statutory employees.
• Payroll Tax Exceptions For Family Members If you hire certain family members to work in your business, you won't have to pay some taxes.

Employment Laws 

• Employment Laws Every Business Owner Should Know About  As a business owner you need to be aware of the various employment laws and how they affect your employment practices and procedures.

Workers Compensation 

• Frequently Asked Questions About Workers Compensation What should I do if I am injured at work? and more questions.
• What To Do After An Accident At Work If you are injured in an accident at work you are probably entitled to workers compensation.