WORKPLACE LAW -
Workplace Resolutions (Continued)

Question:

As a business owner, I am wondering if there are employment practices I should review at the beginning of the year. Could you let me know if there is anything you recommend?

Answer:

As we mentioned last week, it is a good idea to evaluate your workplace practices at the start of each new year to ensure that you are in compliance with the law. Last week we discussed evaluating employee classifications, reviewing timekeeping practices, and conducting an internal audit of your employees’ wages to ensure that they are being compensated fairly. The following are some additional suggestions with regard to policies and practices you may wish to review:

Resolution Number Four—Workplace postings.

In California, all employers must meet certain workplace posting obligations. The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) requires employers to post information related to wages, hours, working conditions and employee rights in an area frequented by employees where it may be easily read during the workday.

All employers are required to post the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders that apply to their business. Additional posting requirements apply to some workplaces. You can visit the following website to obtain an alphabetical index of businesses, and which IWC Wage Order governs them and their employees: http://www.dir.ca.gov/IndexOfBusinessAndOccupations.pdf. This can help you determine which posting requirements apply to you and your business.

Employers are also required to post a notice regarding the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”), which went into effect on November 21, 2009, and which prohibits discrimination against individuals based on genetic information. In order to give employees notice of their rights under GINA, employers must either post the EEOC’s November 2009 version of the “EEO is the Law” poster or the “EEO is the Law” supplement next to their current poster. Both documents are available at
http://www1.eeoc.gov/employers/poster.cfm.

You are only required to replace a workplace posting when its content changes. While the language of the required postings tends to stay the same, there are occasional changes so it is a good idea to check occasionally to ensure that your postings are up to date.

Many postings are available for download from the DIR’s website at the following address: http://www.dir.ca.gov/wpnodb.html. Using downloaded versions of workplace postings from the Internet is acceptable, and satisfies an employer’s legal requirements.

Resolution Number Five—Form I-9 Compliance.

All U.S. employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each employee they hire, including citizens and noncitizens. As part of completing the form, the employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity documents an employee presents, and determine whether the documents appear to be genuine. The employer must then record the document information on the Form I-9.

Employers must retain copies of their employees’ eligibility documents in case they are audited. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced that I-9 audit notices had been presented to 652 employers across the country, and another 1,000 employers were notified that they were going to be audited. Employers should therefore confirm that they have a properly completed Form I-9 for each employee.

Information about the Form I-9 and related issues can be found at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Status website:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis.

Resolution Number Six—Vacation/sick leave audit.

While there is no legal requirement that employers provide their employees with paid sick or vacation time, this is a benefit that most employers provide. If you have a paid sick leave and/or vacation policy, you should periodically review the terms of your policy and confirm that it is being properly administered. California law prohibits “use it or lose it” vacation policies. However, if your vacation policy contains a “cap” on the total amount of vacation that an employee can accrue, you should ensure that the cap is being properly tracked and that employees are aware of the rules regarding their vacation accrual. Similarly, if your sick leave policy does not allow for carry-over of time from one year to the next, you should confirm that your records accurately reflect that each employee’s sick leave bank is zeroed out at the end of the year.

The best way to ensure that your sick and/or vacation policies are being properly applied is to be sure that your employees are familiar with the terms of the policies, and that they are periodically informed how much sick and/or vacation time they have available to them. Because many employers provide their employees with sick and/or vacation time at the start of each calendar year, now is a good time to audit your records and to make sure that you and your employees understand the sick and/or vacation benefits that will be available to them in the coming year.
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