Archive for March, 2009

Time to Change I-9 Forms (Again!)

Monday, March 30th, 2009

As if employers didn’t have enough to keep up with, it is time to throw out your old blank I-9 employee eligibility forms (for immigration compliance) and adopt the new form as of Friday, April 3, 2009.
Click here to download a copy of the new required form. The form is available on the United States [...]

Texas’ Group Health Insurance Problem

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

There was a very informative article in Time Magazine last week called “The Health Care Crisis Hits Home”. The author, a journalist with 15 years covering health policy, wrote of her brother in Texas whose kidneys are failing. He had been insured for 6 years with one company, buying a new individual short-term policy each [...]

Don’t Show a Texas Employee His File

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Let me be clear: Private employers in Texas do not have to allow employees to see their personnel files. That’s right. I don’t care what other states do, or what they show on TV. The law in Texas is that the file belongs to the employer and the employee cannot demand to see it.
That being [...]

Controlling Absenteeism

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

I often get questions from employers about firing employees for absenteeism. Like any good employment attorney, I ask the employer about the scope of the problem. How many absences has the employee taken? What were the reasons for the absenteeism? What sort of verbal and written warnings has the employee received for absenteeism?
Astonishingly, I usually [...]