Tuesday, August 15, 2017

ERM-BC-COOP

Failure to maintain
Employee paperwork
Can prove expensive

ONCE AGAIN, HUMAN RESOURCES (a/k/a Personnel) is identified as a major financial risk for all organizations.

Everyone should already know about the I-9 form1 required by U.S. Customs & Immigration Services, and the penalties the government can access if there are undocumented (e.g., sans I-9 forms) employees. (Never mind that it is all too easy to create phony documents to “prove” a person is eligible to work in the U.S.)

Now, employers need to assure all employee records are maintained

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) won sanctions against JBS USA LLC2 for its “failure to preserve and produce records.”

According to Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a law practice, An employer’s likelihood of defeating a workplace class action is often dependent on its ability maintain and preserve thorough employment records. Here, the employer’s failure to preserve records that ultimately could have helped establish an affirmative defense resulted in the Court limiting the employer from using certain types of evidence in its defense of the litigation. This sanction should serve as a cautionary tale for employers in regards to complying with the written discovery process, as employers are best-positioned to defeat workplace class actions when they have as many defenses as possible in their arsenal.

While this instance is one of production vs. religious practices, the core issue is documentation.

Lack of documentation in the JBS US case led to unspecified (in the Seyfarth Shaw document) sanctions against the meat packing company.

Documentation also needs top be maintained if an organization (of any type) has business interruption insurance.

In order to successfully file a claim, the organization must produce detailed records showing past activities on which it is seeking reimbursement.

No documentation equals no reimbursement. (Check the policy’s terms and conditions carefully.)


If Google messes up the links above, copy and paste the links below into your browser of choice.

    1. https://www.uscis.gov/i-9

    2. http://tinyurl.com/y9er5ba3


PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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