Q. Legally, is there a difference between exempt employees “volunteering” their time or being required to reduce their salaries (or work hours) during these slow economic times?

Q. As a cost-saving measure, our company reduced the salaries of exempt employees by 10%. Employees get their salaries regardless of the number of hours they work. We have always asked our employees, though, to fill out a time sheet on which they write down 40 hours every week. Now we will ask them to record just 36 hours on this time sheet. Any problems with this?

Q. An employee sent a companywide e-mail inviting employees to attend a morning prayer and Bible study prior to work that will be held on the company premises. Do we have to allow this (or do we have to shut it down)?

Q. We had to terminate an employee for failure to adequately perform his job responsibilities. Can we deny him the COBRA subsidy because the termination was not a layoff or a result of the economy?

Q. We have an employee out of work due to a workers’ compensation injury. Does the employee’s time off count against his FMLA leave?

Approximately 3 million doses of the vaccines designed to prevent the H1N1 flu virus—swine flu—shipped last week. Local health authorities are preparing to offer vaccines as early as this week. Can you—should you?—demand that your employees get flu shots?

Q. Last year an employee explained an absence by referring to his rights under Minnesota law to attend school activities. What exactly do Minnesota laws say about a parent’s right to be away from work because of school activities or to take care of children?

Q. An HR colleague told me that government agencies have stepped up their scrutiny of independent contractor relationships. She said employers that have such relationships, or routinely have consultants working alongside employees, should beware. Can you shed any light on this report? What should we do?

Q. We recently offered employees the opportunity to participate in an early retirement program, and several employees elected to take us up on the offer. Are they eligible for the new 65% COBRA subsidy?

Q. After repeatedly warning an employee about her poor performance, we recently terminated her. At the termination meeting, she complained for the first time that she felt she’d been held to higher standards based on her gender. She has now filed for unemployment benefits. While we don’t think she’s entitled to the benefits, we wonder whether it makes sense to fight her claim. What do you think?

Q. I have heard about a new federal law that makes it possible for a nonemployee to sue our company for discrimination. Is that correct? How could such a claim come up and is there anything we can do about it?

Q. Due to the poor economy, we recently cut one of our manufacturing shift’s hours by 60%. This will continue indefinitely. We gave the affected employees two weeks’ advance notice, but we have now received a letter from an attorney claiming we should have given them 60 days’ advance notice. Is that right?

Q. We are a small start-up company. We have an office manager whom we pay $350 per week. I understand that, in order to be exempt from overtime labor laws, we would need to pay her at least $455 per week. We can’t afford to pay that amount, but are willing to provide her stock in the company. Will that help?

Q. We need to cut two employees from our marketing department. One of the employees we would prefer to keep was hired only six months ago. If we don’t base our decision on seniority, are we more susceptible to discrimination claims?

The EEOC and state and local agencies have been filing more administrative charges in recent years. As the recession deepens and more people lose their jobs, that trend is likely to continue. Because administrative charges can be precursors to discrimination lawsuits, it’s critical for you to handle them properly. These 10 tips will help you prepare to respond:

Q. My company provides health care services. Recently, a deaf client said we had to pay for a sign language interpreter. Is that true?

Q. Our company is sponsoring a community art fair, and several employees have volunteered to help at the event. Do we need to compensate those employees for the time they spend volunteering?

Q. We are sponsoring an immigrant worker on an H-1B visa. Because of performance issues, we would like to terminate his employment. Can we do this?

Q. Is an employer required to keep a job open for an employee who is out on an indefinite leave due to a workers’ compensation injury? Does the employee have an automatic right to get put back into the same job he was doing right before he was injured?

Q. Our company works with proprietary and confidential information. We would like to protect ourselves from having that information get disclosed to competing companies. Are confidentiality agreements enforceable? If so, must they be signed at the start of a new employee’s job in order to be valid?

Q. We are hearing rumors that one of our employees may be setting up a new business in the same industry in which we operate. That employee has not signed a noncompete agreement. If he is starting up such a business, is that illegal even without a noncompete?

Q. My company is considering adding a confidentiality notice to our e-mail messages to cover situations in which an unintended person receives our company e-mail. Does this provide any protection?

Q. My company would like to hire several college students as interns to work on special projects. Because the work has educational value, we are wondering if the internships can be unpaid. Can we do this? ...

The EEOC and state and local agencies have been filing more and more administrative charges in recent years. As the recession deepens and more people lose their jobs, that trend is likely to continue. Because administrative charges can be precursors to discrimination lawsuits, it’s critical for you to handle them properly.

Q. My company requires new employees to sign a two-year noncompete agreement. Are such agreements enforceable?