With the passage of the PUMP Act last year employers with 50 or more employees should now consider including a policy addressing nursing mothers in the workplace. Employers under 50 in size may have an exemption but only if they can demonstrate that compliance for a particular employee causes undue hardship.

Updating your employee handbook is a critical annual initiative for an HR department.  It ensures compliance with industry standards and federal and state laws.  

What is a statute of limitations agreement? In the employment context, this is an agreement between the employer and employee that states the employee agrees to bring any claims against the employer within a specific period of time after employment.

Many organizations have had to adjust their return to office plans due to employees revolting. Rather than compete with the home office, try embracing it by creating an office that builds off of what your employees love about working from home.

Businesses, both large and small, are increasingly reliant on the internet for daily operations, creating attractive and potentially lucrative targets for cyber criminals.  As a new era of work from anywhere is ushered in, traditional in-office firewalls don’t work.  A cyber attack can cripple any size company.

Cell phones in the workplace are a distraction that employers want to control and employees don’t want them to control.  The common statement by an employee is “what if I get an emergency call?  I cannot be unavailable to my . . .“ And what makes this worse is that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) generally sides with employees without regard to the practicalities involved.

As you put together your 2023 holiday calendar, have you considered Juneteenth? Since June 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day (“Juneteenth”) is recognized as a U.S. federal holiday.  According to a survey performed by Harvard Business Review, only 41% of U.S. workers were aware of Juneteenth prior to 2020.   Why the date, June 19th, you ask? On this date in the year 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Texas to announce that the Civil War was over, and...

A recent article published in CCH HRAnswersNow Expert Insights looks at the issue of FMLA coverage for remote workers. In this case, a person worked from their home which was well outside what could be reasonably considered within the coverage area of the FMLA.

Does your organization award perfect attendance?  Is it done on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis?  And what does perfect attendance mean exactly?  Perfect attendance needs to also take into account the variety of days that should still be counted towards perfect attendance without penalizing the employee for taking them.

Employers have had to scramble over the last three years while dealing with COVID. Suddenly working from home was not a rare option but a required way to keep businesses going while keeping employees as safe as possible. Now that most companies and employees have found their groove in dealing with the pandemic, long COVID is creating new challenges for employers and the employees suffering from the symptoms.

MRA, one of ASE’s sister associations located in Wisconsin and Illinois, released the results of their latest Hot Topic Survey on Remote Work and Inflation.  The survey revealed that remote work has become one of the most valued benefits companies can offer.

Over one in four employers is exploring the expansion of covered abortion services, according to a new report from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. The Post-Dobbs Employer Coverage: July 2022 Pulse Survey revealed current abortion coverage offerings and future considerations. When asked about making changes to current coverage for abortion services, employers responded with the following:

Last month the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against an employer that did not follow its employee handbook policies properly. The Court pointed to the importance not only of having an employee handbook but to set up the policies properly in order to achieve the true intent of what the employer wants from its handbook policies

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) finished its term this year with some decisions that though not directly impacting employers, does compel them to review their benefit plans and other select policies to ensure they stay up to date.

With the holiday behind us and the pandemic winding its way leading to more normalcy, the ability to rest and essentially take it easy is creating an opportunity to recharge and become more productive.  With most organizations offering limited time off, depending on the number of years the employee has worked, time off can range from 10 days to 25 days according to ASE’s 2022 Michigan Policies & Practices Survey.