The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) turns 15 this year and workers’ rights advocates, the Bush Administration and the Labor Department are weighing in on proposed changes to the law. According to an April 24 article in the Washington Post,
“…workers would have to tell their bosses in advance when they take nonemergency leave, instead
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There are psychological tests and assessment tools that are predictive of violent behavior, but there are significant legal restrictions on their use. Assessments that are not "medical tests" may be used on a pre-employment basis, but should not be used as the principal reason for a hiring or promotion decision.
There is no profile of a potential workplace violence perpetrator; however, there are traits when coupled with at risk situations that increase the likelihood of violent behavior. Sheryl and Mark Grimm of the Workplace Violence Headquarters have developed a Formula for Workplace Violence that includes a list of traits as follows:
There is a major legal distinction made between an employer’s treatment of an applicant with a potentially violent personality and the treatment of employee conduct that exhibits violent behavior. The EEOC has stated that its position on the distinction between perception and conduction in its Enforcement Guidance for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities :Continue Reading Violence in the Workplace: Observations and Recommendations
Many employers utilize some form of pre-employment testing to assist them in hiring decisions. A 2000 study by the American Management Association reported that 69% of firms used some form of job skills testing and 33% used psychological testing.
There are general legal restrictions on the use of pre-employment testing in addition to the general prohibitions on discrimination found in Title VII and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Section Procedures prohibit the use of a test or selection process that has an adverse impact on individuals in a protected class unless the test has criterion-related, content and construction validation studies. The validation studies must consist of empirical data demonstrating that the test is (1) predictive of performance of important elements of job performance; (2) contains content which tests important aspects of performance on the job; and (3) consists of procedures that assess identifiable characteristics that have been determined to be important to job performance.
Both the ADA and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act prohibit the use of "medical tests" prior to an employer extending a conditional offer of employment. A medical test is generally one that seeks information about an individual’s physical or mental health or impairments. Courts examining whether a test is "medical" have looked at the following factors: (1) administration or interpretation of the test by a medical professional; (2) intent of design of the test to reveal a medical or mental impairment; (3) conducting the test in a medical setting; (4) measurement of the individual’s psychological responses to performing a task; (5) necessity of medical equipment to perform the test; and (6) invasive nature of the procedure.
Following is a summary of some of the more popular pre-employment tests employed by businesses to assess applicants:
Continue Reading Employment Screening and Background Checks – Part III
Staffing is a critical and time consuming function for human resource professionals. To expedite the process, many employers turn to staffing agencies to assist in or even take over the staffing function. Relationships with staffing agencies can take a variety of forms including temporary placements, temp to hire arrangements, and employee leasing with a professional employer organization (PEO).
Many employers are surprised to learn that their company may have legal responsibility and even liability for temporary and leased employees. Liability arises when a company has the right to control the manner of the performance of the worker’s activities. When such a right to control is present, a company may be a joint employer with the temporary agency or PEO. Most common temporary agency relationships create joint employment because the temporary worker performs services at the company’s business location under the direction and supervision of the company.
The prime example of the joint employment principal in Pennsylvania is found in the case of JFC Temps, Inc. v. WCAB (Lindsay and G&B Packing), 680 A. 2d 862 (Pa. 1996). In JFC Temps, a worker was hired by a temporary agency, and was assigned to work for a trucking company. The worker performed his services at the trucking company, and the trucking company manager informed him of his work hours, the equipment he would be using, and the locations to which he was to drive. No representative of the temporary agency was ever at the trucking facility. The worker was injured in the course of the performance of the services for the trucking company. The injured worker sought workers’ compensation benefits from the temporary agency.
Under these circumstances, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the trucking company (not the temporary agency) was the injured worker’s employer for worker’s compensation purposes because the trucking company possessed the right to control the manner of the performance of the claimant’s work. In fact, the Court noted, the temporary agency had no substantial contact with the claimant other than processing his paycheck, and, as such, could not be said to have controlled the manner of performance of the work. The Court so held despite the fact that the temporary agency had the authority to terminate the injured worker’s employment.
The obvious problem for the trucking company was that the workers’ compensation claim was likely uninsured since it did not consider the temporary worker to be one of its employees. This type of unexpected liability translates into other areas of the employment relationship like pension and medical benefits, payroll taxes, and discrimination laws. Continue Reading Temporary Staffing Agency Relationships: Who is the employer for legal compliance?
