Compliance and Legal

Recruiters can gain great credit for finding and securing top international talent – and rightly so.   The whole world is a talent pool today, and  the  best  people  may  be  located down the street or on the other side of the world.

Once  recruited,  paperwork  must be   completed   for   each   and   every hire  and  this  includes  the  I-9  form. The  I-9  verifies  the  identity  and  the employment authorization of each employee and is part of the federal immigration regulatory process.

Read more: Can Your Company Survive An I-9 Audit?

A Report on Temporary Help, On-Call, Direct-Hire Temporary, Leased, Contract Company, and Independent Contractor Employment in the United States

Besides not defining the term "employee", most statutes fail to spell out who the employer is. There is potential ambiguity on this issue when businesses use temporary agency, leased, or contract workers. Although the primary employer is generally the temporary help, leasing, or contract company, the client may be regarded as a “joint employer” under some laws.

Read more: Who Is the Employer? Determining Joint-Employer Status

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently held a meeting with "a battery of experts" on disparate treatment in hiring. According to the EEOC, hiring discrimination continues to run rampant.

Time for a grain of salt here: According to the EEOC's press release, most of the experts were from the EEOC, or were individuals who had been denied jobs and claimed they were discriminated against. 

Read more: 6 ways to avoid being the EEOC's next hiring "test case"

Introduction

Generally, an employer has the right to expect that certain guidelines involving dress and grooming be met in the workplace, and can set forth policies regarding these issues.  

Read more: Guide to Dress Codes and Nondiscrimination Laws

Plaintiff's lawyer Donna Ballman and The Evil HR Lady have had good posts recently on common employee misconceptions about employment law, including the "right" to see what is in one's personnel file and the "right" to take a break.*

*Depending on where the employee lives, he may have these rights, but in many states he does not. And the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not require breaks.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Read more: The Fallacious Five: Employment law misconceptions that trip up employers