Flexible Work
Arrangements – as an employer in Vermont you have the “right to say no,
but the duty to consider”. In fact, your employees can ask you two times
a year. NFIB recommends that you ask your employees the following series
of questions and document your response to them in writing because you have to
prove you’ve considered their request twice during the year.
1.
What do you need?
2.
How long will you need it?
3.
How will we get that work done?
4.
Have you considered any alternatives to what you are requesting?
Explore with your employee, in an interactive and positive
manner, alternatives that may balance your needs with your employee’s
requests. The key is to have a positive communication experience with
your employee; they have the right to ask, and you have the duty to
consider. Your process should be positive and if you’re able to make an
arrangement work you should do it.
In the end process will matter most should you face a
challenge to compliance with the law.
Equal Pay Act – Vermont passed a
law in 2013 that allows for an employer to pay
different wage rates to employees of different sexes only when based on the
following 4 scenarios:
1. Seniority
2. Merit
3. Quality
of work production
4. A
bona fide factor other than sex
The
burden is on the employer to demonstrate that any differential in wages is
based on a factor that “does not perpetuate a sex-based differential in
compensation, is job-related with respect to the position in question, and is based upon a legitimate business
consideration.”
