1. FEATURE STORY: HOW SMALL EMPLOYERS CAN HELP HAITI
It's been about three weeks since the devastating earthquake hit Haiti. The images that continue to emerge from the country are haunting, and the pleas for help are as urgent as ever. Cash-strapped small employers might be wondering what, if anything, they can do to help. Here are two suggestions that don't cost a dime.
Adopt Policy Flexibility
Consider taking a lenient approach to applying time-off policies to employees with family in Haiti. Individuals might need the extra time off to locate missing family or grieve for family who have, or are assumed to have, perished.
Or relax start and finish times, if possible, so that employees can engage in community volunteer/fundraising efforts before or after work.
If your company has policies prohibiting employees from using company e-mail for personal reasons or making/accepting personal phone calls while on the clock, consider relaxing them, too, so employees can more easily communicate with family in Haiti.
One policy that you should think twice about before relaxing is a non-solicitation policy. Allowing an employee to use the company's network to send an e-mail asking staff to purchase raffle tickets to support a Haiti disaster relief fundraiser might seem harmless. But, bending the rules in this instance could give rise to a claim that you should do so in other instances, too, such as when it comes to union solicitation. If you don't relax the rules for union communications, you risk violating the National Labor Relations Act.
According to the National Labor Relations Board's Register Guard ruling, however, allowing charitable solicitations (e.g., Red Cross) but prohibiting non-charitable solicitations (e.g., union) is permissible in certain situations; namely, where the solicitation policy explicitly makes this distinction and is consistently enforced.
Important: Check that your military leave policies are in line with the covered active duty requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as the rights outlined in the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Thousands of service members have already been deployed to Haiti.
Alert Employees About Scams
Chances are good that employees have made, and will continue to make, personal donations to the Haiti relief effort. Help them to ensure that unscrupulous persons don't take advantage of their generosity.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) implored everyone to apply a critical eye to a request to donate money. Specifically, the FBI warned:
Suggestion: Post information on avoiding Haiti relief scams on a centrally located bulletin board or on an intranet. Distributing it personally to each employee could create the perception (no matter how erroneous) that you, or the organization, expect them to make a donation.
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