Reasonable accommodation under the ADA: What's an employer to do?

As many observers expected when the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, employers have faced numerous court cases regarding the matter of appropriate accommodations for disabled workers under the law. The difficulty is that no consensus has emerged on the various interpretations of that law. Three particular areas of concern and disagreement have emerged, namely, how the accommodation request is made, how to handle reassignments, and whether to permit telecommuting as a substitute to working on premises. Several federal circuit courts have determined that the employer must respond to an employee's request in virtually any form, while others have stated that the employee must be specific in requesting an accommodation for disability. In two circuits, the employee must show some evidence of disability. The case law governing reassignment also varies by circuit, but in general a disabled employee who is being transferred would be given priority over prospective hires for the same position. The work of existing employees is not to be increased as a consequence of the ADA. Finally, telecommuting has thus far not found favor in most courts, but an employer who permits telecommuting for some employees will find it difficult to claim hardship for a worker who seeks to telecommute under the ADA's provisions. The courts have been most supportive of employers who have made a specific, fact-based determination regarding an employee's request for accommodation. By focusing directly on the situation at hand, an employer can document the particulars of an ADA request, regardless of whether the employee is satisfied by the employer's determination.     

Exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act: The cost of misclassifying employees

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 created two classes of employees—those who are paid for each hour of their labor and those who are given a salary due to the administrative, professional, or executive nature of their responsibilities. The FLSA created exemptions from the hourly wage laws for executive and administrative employees who are paid a salary. Therefore, employers must classify each employee correctly or risk substantial damage payments for lost overtime hours. The law contains a two-fold test for exempting positions from the law's overtime provisions. The first prong of the test is that the position pays a regular salary that essentially does not vary according to either the quality or quantity of work performed. The second prong involves the position's primary duties as being executive or administrative. (The article does not discuss the professional exemption.) The executive-duties test is that the position directs the equivalent of two or more full-time employees in managing a recognized department or subdivision of an enterprise. To meet the administrative test, the position's primary duty must involve the exercise of discretion or independent judgment relating to management policies or conduct of the business.     

Marital happiness: implications for dual career couples

Two marital myths, a woman's place is in the home and the husband is the primary wage earner or provider, were investigated in relation to marital happiness. No significant relationships were found between the variables indicating that changing lifestyles and the employment of females outside the home may be resulting in a greater equality between spouses and that women's employment does not affect marital happiness, even though job responsibilities and pressure may at times create conflict between dual career couples.     

Is there really a foreign ownership wage premium? Evidence from matched employer–employee data

Numerous studies on firm-level data have reported higher average wages in foreign-owned firms than in domestically owned firms. This, however, does not necessarily imply that the individual worker's wage increase with foreign ownership. Using detailed matched employer–employee data on the entire Swedish private sector, we examine the effect of foreign ownership on individual wages, controlling for individual and firm heterogeneity as well as for possible selection bias in foreign acquisitions. We distinguish between foreign greenfields and takeovers and compare foreign-owned firms with both domestic multinationals and local firms. Our results show a considerably smaller wage premium in foreign-owned firms than what has been found in studies conducted at a more aggregate level. Moreover, foreign takeovers of Swedish firms tend to have no or even a negative effect on wages.     

Flexible Arbeitszeit — Forderungen,Fakten, Einschätzungen und Alternativen

In Germany, the employer’s association is interested in abolishing the legal maximum of working hours per day. The unions want to improve work life balance through a temporary working time reduction combined with a partial wage adjustment. Analysis shows that the current requests are not so urgent. In both cases, one party opposes the requests of the other. A process of give and take is necessary from both employees and employers. We suggest an extension of working time with flexible arrangements and in combination with more home office possibilities. If one party requires other working time arrangements, this should be compensated by wage equivalents.     

Antecedents of Truck Drivers’ Job Satisfaction and Retention Proneness

The aim of this study was to (1) explore the antecedents of truck drivers’ job satisfaction, (2) identify the impact of financial and nonfinancial job properties on satisfaction with the job and with one's employer, and (3) the drivers’ proneness to retaining their jobs. Based on the extant literature, we develop a conceptual model that is tested using survey data for 164 truck drivers. Multiple linear and ordinal logistic regressions were used to estimate the proposed effects. The results reveal that nonfinancial job properties and satisfaction with one's employer affect job satisfaction is statistically significant. Financial and nonfinancial job properties affect satisfaction with one's employer whereas the former shows a lower impact compared to the latter. Satisfaction with the job and one's employer impacts retention proneness. The contribution of this study was to (1) add to the understanding of the factors that predict retention of truck drivers in relationship to job satisfaction and (2) highlight the different roles of financial and nonfinancial job properties in this specific work context.     

Reassessing the foreign ownership wage premium in Germany

This paper evaluates the effect of foreign takeover on wages of workers in German establishments, using rich linked employer–employee data from 2003 to 2014. To identify a causal effect of foreign takeover, we combine propensity-score matching with a difference-in-difference estimator. We find that a takeover by a foreign investor leads to a wage premium of 4.0 log points in the year after ownership change, which further increases to 6.3 log points 3 years after acquisition. The wage premium is largest for high-skilled workers, which is consistent with three theoretical arguments, namely rent appropriation by managers, technology protection and training on new technology. We also show that the wage premium does not pick up an exporter effect due to a platform investment of the foreign owner, that it takes about 4 years before it fully develops, that it does not vanish after foreign divestment and that the wage increase is specific to foreign acquisition instead of ownership change per se.     

The Impact of the Employment of the Wife on the Achievement of Home Ownership

A logistic regression analysis is used to assess the impact of the wife's income, wage rate, and hours worked on changing from rental tenure to home ownership among a subsample of husband-wife house-holds from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Age of the wife, education of the wife, family size, and residence in the Northeast are significant predictors of change in tenure status between 1979 and 1983; of the wife's employment variables tested, only the number of hours worked (a proxy for labor force commitment) is a significant predictor of the probability of changing from rental tenure to home ownership.     

Economic Restructuring and HRM in Hong Kong

This article discusses the human resource implications of' business readjustment and advances in Hong Kong as its economy is restructured into a post-industrial centre of tertiary service industries. Corporate reforms are benchmarked against Western practices of exploring flexibilities and competitiveness which emphasize labour performance and cost savings. However, job security does not appear to have been eroded, possibly betraying an Oriental importance placed upon trust and commitment between employer and employee. As a meeting-place where Eastern and Western cultural practices interface, Hong Kong probably remains economically resilient by keeping its normative and institutional permissiveness in a hybrid mix of Western and Oriental practices.     

The Effects of Employee Attitudes on Workplace Charitable Donations

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this paper are to examine the effects of employee attitudes toward the employer on workplace monetary donations at two levels: (1) to see if there is a significant difference between the attitudes of employees who make workplace contributions and those who do not; and (2) to examine whether awareness of employer charitable contributions moderate the relationship between employee attitudes and donating behavior. Employee attitudes include organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The research questions are examined in the context of workplace contributions made to a regional branch of United Way. The results indicate that organizational commitment scores exhibited by employees who made workplace contributions, and who were aware that their employer was also making corporate donations were significantly higher than the commitment for employees who did not make workplace contributions. No significant relationships were found for job satisfaction.     

A Brief History of Long Work Time and the Contemporary Sources of Overwork

What are some of the key historical trends in hours of work per worker in US? What economic, social-psychological, organizational and institutional forces determine the length of individuals’ working hours? How much of the trend toward longer working hours among so many workers may be attributable to workers’ preferences, workplace incentives or employers’ constraints? When can work become overwork or workaholism – an unforced addiction to incessant work activity which risk harm to workers, families or even economies? The first part of this article traces the history of the length of working hours and its recent polarization. The second part develops a multi-disciplinary model to identify motivations behind working longer hours. Individuals' desired work hours will stem from the weighted contribution of five sources: (1) current real wage rates; (2) forward-looking, wage trajectories; (3) relative status associated with hours of labor; (4) intrinsic rewards, process benefits or amenities acquired through work; (5) hours demanded by the employer and other structural constraints, to which workers may adapt. Employers and their established conditions of work have influenced the course of long run trends labor supply and in work time structures. The final section suggests policies that might address the persistence of long hours.     

Subcontracting chain and workers’ participation in continuing vocational training: findings from the French,quantitative, linked employer–employee survey of training and career paths

This article discusses the correlation between cascading subcontracting and employees' participation in continuing vocational training. Based on a capability approach, it uses the French quantitative linked employer–employee survey on training and career paths (DEFIS) to question to what degree inter‐firm relations influence their employees’ training opportunities and processes. The results suggest cascading effects in training participation, considered from the angle of taking part both in training and training decision making. It addresses public policy issues arising from inequalities in employee participation with respect to the subcontracting relationship and thereby questions the liability of pure principal contractors.     

Relationships Among Employee Perception of Their Manager’s Behavioral Integrity, Moral Distress, and Employee Attitudes and Well-Being

Hypothesized relationships among reports by employees of moral distress, their perceptions of their manager’s behavioral integrity (BI), and employee reports of job satisfaction, stress, job engagement, turnover likelihood, absenteeism, work-to-family conflict, health, and life satisfaction were tested using data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n = 2,679). BI was positively related to job satisfaction, job engagement, health, and life satisfaction and negatively to stress, turnover likelihood, and work-to-family conflict, while moral distress was inversely related to those outcomes. The magnitudes of relationships with job satisfaction, job engagement, and life satisfaction were greater with BI than with moral distress. Moral distress mediated the relationships between BI and the employee outcomes, supporting the view that employee’s perceptions of their manager’s BI might influence the employee’s behaviors as well as their attitudes.     

The Skill Structure of Export Wage Premium: Evidence from Chinese Matched Employer–Employee Data

We study how the wage gap between exporting and non‐exporting firms (export wage premium) differs across skill groups, using unique matched employer–employee data from China. We find robust evidence that exporters pay relatively higher wages than non‐exporters to more educated workers. The differences in export wage premium across education groups are sizable. Further investigations show that the positive correlation between export wage premium and education is more pronounced in sectors with higher scope for quality differentiation. This is consistent with the theory that exporters produce relatively higher quality goods which require relatively higher quality skilled workers.     

The Employment At-Will Doctrine: Second Level Ethical Issues and Analysis

There is an ongoing debate over the ethical status of policies that give an employer the right to discharge an employee without a good reason or notice (i.e., employment at-will policies). This article moves beyond the question of whether the adoption of such a policy is unethical per se under all circumstances, focusing instead on the following question: Assuming that an at-will policy is not unethical per se in all circumstances, what are the ethical issues associated with an employer's implementation and maintenance of an employment at-will policy, and how can these issues be addressed? Three primary ethical concerns are identified and discussed, and specific propositions regarding employers' obligations are presented. The article concludes by offering practical guidance intended to assist at-will employers in meeting the identified ethical obligations.     

Is Whistle-blowing Compatible with Employee Loyalty?

Whistle-blowing would appear to involve a conflict between employee loyalty and protection of public interest. Several business ethicists have, however, argued that this conflict is indeed merely apparent. According to the central argument to that effect, when the nature of employee loyalty is understood correctly, it becomes clear that whistle-blowing does not threaten employees’ loyalty to their employer. This is because blowing the whistle about one’s employer’s wrongdoing and being loyal to them serves the same goal, the moral good of the employer. In this article, I assess this philosophical argument for the conclusion that the moral problem of whistle-blowing is not real. I argue that the way of defending the view that whistle-blowing is not morally problematic is implausible.     

The Health and Safety at Work Act and Retail Managements

A decade ago managemertts in Great Britain were confronted by new workplace health and safety law. They had in many cases experienced the need to comply with statutory requirements before but the 1974 Act brought unique reportsibiliries which were viewed wit11 trepidation. This article focuses upon the influence which the Act has exerted on retail stores' management. It examines the health and safety systems which have evolved in the stores and considers the degree to which they have met the intention of the Act. In addition, the arricle reveals why theories of employee participation can be difficult to translate into practice.     

Preserving your revenue-management system as a trade secret

A hotel's or airline's revenue-management system is (1) quite valuable and (2) a trade secret. Trade secrets involve special proprietary information and processes, including publicly available information that is assembled in a special manner by the trade secret's owner. Establishing that a process is a trade secret involves demonstrating that it is, in fact, a secret, that information about the process is restricted to employees and licensess, and that the owner makes a specific effort to shield the information. Hotels' revenue-management systems are particularly at risk for either general disclosure or corporate espionage because of the relatively rapid turnover of employees and the fact that those employees often go to work for competitors. Thus, a wise hotelier will take the following steps to protect the company's revenue-management system: (1) maintain the information's physical security by restricting access, (2) place restrictive legends on the information stating that it is in fact confidential, (3) state in employee handbooks that the revenue-management information is a trade secret and will be shared only in confidence, (4) require revenue-management employees to sign confidentiality agreements, (5) train employees and remind them regularly of the confidentiality of the revenue-management information, and (6) ask exiting employees to reaffirm their agreement not to share the confidential trade secrets. The former employer may also consider sending an advisory letter to a departing employee's new employer stating that the revenue-management information is confidential, but that letter-writing step involves other issues that require legal counsel.     

Employee References: Between the Legal Devil and the Ethical Deep Blue Sea

An employer asked to provide a reference for a former or departing employee is confronted with a number of complex legal and ethical concerns. The issue of references is always controversial, involving a balance of employers' fears of legal liability, interests in providing relevant information to prospective employers, and concerns for fairness to former employees. Recently this topic has been the focus of new attention as the result of a court decision holding a former employer legally liable for wrongs committed by a former employee in a new job. In that case, the former employer had provided a positive reference while neglecting to note certain negative aspects of the former employee'sperformance. This paper addresses legal and ethical aspects of the reference dilemma and incorporates responses of human resource professionals to the question of ethical reference policies and practices.