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Employee solicitation: Do you have any recourse?

By Sébastien Gobeil We have often reported on how Canadian courts enforce, or do not enforce, noncompete and nonsolicitation clauses. But those cases have focused on the solicitation of the former employer’s customers or clients. What happens when a former employee solicits your employees to leave, leading to a series of resignations? Do you have […]

Military downsizing presents opportunity, challenge for employers

A thread running through a succession of news stories is sending a clear message to employers: The military is shrinking its ranks and the pressure is on civilian employers to hire more veterans.  U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced new downsizing plans for the nation’s armed forces in February, explaining that budget cuts are […]

Maintaining a religion-neutral workplace

by Charles S. Plumb About a year ago, a group of private citizens paid for a seven-foot-tall granite monument of the Ten Commandments and gained approval for it to be placed on the north end of the Oklahoma Capitol grounds. Not surprisingly, a satanic group then asked Oklahoma’s Capitol Preservation Commission for permission to erect […]

Satisfying your obligation to accommodate disabled employees

by Kara E. Shea Did you know the fastest rising category of claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is claims based on disability discrimination and/or failure to accommodate disabled employees? This isn’t surprising given that, under the expanded Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), virtually any nonminor/nontransitory impairment may be considered a qualifying […]

Wiccan what? Religious accommodations and sincerely held beliefs

by Steve Jones Q If an employee asks for time off for her religious beliefs, can I legally question her about her religion (e.g., what her religion is and why she needs off)?  A Most likely, yes. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on religion. The Act requires employers […]

You’re not a doctor, and you don’t play one on TV

by Jane Pfeifle An employer made an incorrect assumption about a disabled applicant. When a court disagreed with the assumption, the employer paid the applicant more than $50,000. Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & Lebrun, P.C., the firm of article author Jane Wipf Pfeifle, was involved in this case. All facts are taken solely from the court’s […]

DOL Proposes that 401(k) Service Providers Furnish Fee Guides

Employers struggling to decode the service provider fee disclosures from their retirement plans may be getting some relief. Nearly two years after the U.S. Department of Labor published a proposed rule requiring covered service providers to disclose the cost of what they do for employer-sponsored 401(k)s, the agency is requesting more help for plan sponsors […]

Lessons from Lombardi—The 8-Hour Session

(Oswald, CEO of BLR®, offered his thoughts on Lombardi and leadership in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter.) As a young assistant coach, Madden attended a coaching clinic where Lombardi was the speaker. As Madden tells it, he was quite confident in his football knowledge. Showing up at the clinic, he sat in the […]

Lessons from Lombardi—The 8-Hour Session

Over the weekend, I was watching a piece on legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi. The documentary chronicled Lombardi’s life growing up in Brooklyn through his storied years as a championship coach with the Packers. As a Packers fan, I’ve read biographies on Lombardi and other books that have discussed the man and his […]

Best Practices in Training: Wellness Coaching That Works!

In a pilot project over a 12-month period, more than half of participants in a pilot program sponsored by Onlife Health, a national health and wellness company, and Government Employees Health Association (GEHA), a national health plan for federal employees, lowered their blood pressure through education, coaching, and monitoring. Onlife coaches worked with GEHA members […]