Employment Law

Corporate Compliance FAQs

What is the definition of corporate compliance?
Corporate compliance is defined as the observation of and adherence to codes of conduct, policies and regulations that pertain to a company's relationship between its employees, managers and other organizations.

What is a compliance plan?
A compliance plan is the way a business, company or other professional entity adheres to federal, state and local regulations regarding employment law. These plans can take form of wage and hour stipulations, equal opportunity, record keeping, overtime rules, retirement benefits, safety guidelines or any other statute that involves the welfare and treatment of employees. If a business violates these rules, they can be held responsible in courts of law, and the affected workers can collect damages caused by the infractions.

What is regulatory compliance?
Regulatory compliance is the effort professional entities adhere to in order to meet the legal guidelines set forth by federal, state and local governments.

How does salary work?
Salary is the sum total of a worker's pay for their labor, divided up into segments and distributed on a regular basis. Workers can get paid weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or in whatever way their employer decides. Salaried employers are generally exempt from FLSA coverage, which means they do not usually get compensated for any time worked longer than normal working hours.

How do I design a compensation plan?
Designing a compensation plan for your business is one of the most complicated and important tasks you can undertake. It requires knowledge of a vast amount of data and the human resources acumen to apply it effectively.
 
How to write policies and procedures
In order to have a smoothly-operating workplace, it is important to have a well-planned and easily accessible employee policy and procedure guide. The reasons for this are twofold: first, to let your employees know that you are organized and have their best interests at heart by having your operating principles clearly outlined to reduce confusion; and second, to easily establish where your responsibilities lay if an employee or ex-employee embarks on a lawsuit regarding a policy and procedure issue.

In order to create the most effective policies and procedures guidelines, it is best to consult dedicated and experienced employment law attorneys that understand the complicated issues at play and help you anticipate any problems before they arise.

Is an employer required to provide employee handbook?
No, but it behooves an employer to create an employee handbook so that everyone knows the policies and procedures in order to limit confusion and potential litigation.

What constitutes harassment in the workplace?
Workplace harassment constitutes a form of discrimination that violates federal or state laws that attempt to create a safe and respectful professional environment. Any person in a work environment can potentially harass anyone else; managers can harass their employees, coworkers can harass each other, even vendors or people not directly employed at the workplace can create a hostile work environment. Furthermore, the person need not even be the object of the offensive act; merely taking offense to the conduct of someone else can be harassment.

Some common types of harassment in the workplace include:

• Unwanted sexual advances
• Derogatory comments about a person's race, age, ethnicity, color or gender
• Negative references to the mental capacity of a worker
• Disparaging remarks about someone's physical capabilities or impairment

In order to truly be harassment, there must be a pattern of behavior directed from someone to someone else to the degree that it affects the condition of someone else's employment.
 
What is discrimination?
Discrimination is the positive or negative treatment of a person based on characteristics or qualities found within certain demographics.

Is an on call employee exempt from overtime pay?
It depends on the nature of the job and the extent and frequency of professional communication.

How to pay overtime for FLSA exempt employees
If an employee is exempt from FLSA protections, the payment of overtime, if any, is between the arrangement between the worker and their employer, as codified in a contract or policy.

Why firms must pay higher rates for overtime work
Firms pay more for overtime work, typically time and a half, because federal law mandates they must, and because it is fair to pay a worker more for working above and beyond their normal hours.

Does an employer have to pay an H-2B worker overtime wages?
If the H-2B worker is in a non-exempt employee classification and does not fall into certain categories where overtime is not allowed, then yes the employer must pay overtime.