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Does Banishing Scents Make Sense at Work?

It seems that the number of people with allergies or sensitivities to various scents and smells has grown substantially. Some of those allergies can be severe, causing severe respiratory difficulties and other serious health issues.

Until death do us part: Attempts to reduce retiree benefits fail—for now

By Ralph Nero, Ross Gascho, and Keri Bennett As in the United States, some Canadian employers have attempted to eliminate or reduce post-retirement benefits in order to address escalating costs. In two recent cases, Canadian employers were found to be not entitled to reduce post-retirement health and life insurance benefits. Courts in both Ontario and […]

Are You Required to File an EEO-1 Report?

EEO-1 reports are required as part of Title VII. They are required to be submitted annually by September 30 to the EEOC’s Joint Reporting Committee. The EEO-1 report provides information on employees by ethnicity, race, gender, and job category, which allows the EEOC to assess trends in the workplace. Are You Required to File an […]

PTO and Vacation: What’s the Difference?

Creating a PTO policy may not be as straightforward as employers would like it to be. After all, it’s not just a simple name change. What an employer calls their employees’ time off and how it is treated is important because it will affect the legal obligations attached to it. Each state has its own […]

HHS Describes Employer Process to Undo Exchanges’ Decisions

The health care reform process under which employers can contest adverse determinations (that can trigger pay-or-play penalties) due to an insurance exchange finding that their plans fail to provide minimum essential coverage was finalized in program integrity rules put on public display on Aug. 29 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The […]

FMLA Leave: Expert Answers Employer’s Questions

Administering FMLA leave is not always a simple task. Sometimes even the simplest questions become complex, such as how long is a week of FMLA leave when it’s taken in hours instead of in a full block of time? Do FMLA medical certifications expire? What certification can be requested when an employee is taking FMLA […]

How to Make mLearning Work for Workforce Training

“We believe that mobile technology can become an engine of business learning in the same way the World Wide Web became the backbone of learning during the previous technological revolution,” says Alex Heiphetz, PhD., author of “mLearning: A Practical Approach to Mobile Technology for Workforce Training,” a policy paper from The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation. Heiphetz […]

Employee Leave—How Are Best Companies Handling It?

Participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are doing. We’ll get answers to these questions and more: What kind of paid leaves are offered? (Bereavement? Vacation? Holidays? Maternity/Paternity? Jury Duty?) Do you offer vacation and sick leave or paid time off (PTO)? How […]

Exempt Vs. Non-Exempt: What are the Rules? (Q&A Part 2 of 2)

In a recent BLR webinar, Austin E. Smith lent his expertise to tell us about some of the challenges employers face when dealing with exempt vs. non-exempt employee classifications. For example, to meet the requirements for an administrative exemption, an employee must pass the “primary duty” test, which says that their primary duties must include […]

Exempt Vs. Non-Exempt: What are the Rules? (Q&A Part 1 of 2)

Classifying some employees as exempt from overtime means employers have to be careful—they must meet all of the initial exemption requirements, and also not take any actions that could jeopardize that exempt status (such as making improper pay deductions for exempt employees). This challenge raises many questions for employers, such as how to handle situations […]