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Compliance with Employee Privacy Laws: How To Create an E-Monitoring Policy

Employers wanting to be in compliance with employee privacy laws should ensure that employees understand that e-monitoring policies affect the employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy. In other words, if employees are told that their electronic communications will be monitored, then they cannot reasonably expect that they will be private. In a CER webinar titled “HR’s […]

Pressure To Resign Following Postpartum Depression? Bad Idea

A spa director sued for pregnancy discrimination after she allegedly was pressured to resign following her leave for postpartum depression. The employer asked the court to compel arbitration in accordance with an arbitration provision in the employment application. Was the arbitration agreement enforceable?

Online—Can’t Prohibit the Bad, Can’t Allow the Good?

Is that right? You can’t prohibit employees from saying bad things online, yet you also can’t allow them to say good things? To some extent, that’s true, says attorney Peter Lowe. Lowe, who is a partner at Brann & Isaacson in Lewiston, Maine, offered his tips at the BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently […]

Star Performer Says He Benefited from Firing

In the book Bear Bryant On Leadership: Life Lessons from a Six-Time National Championship Coach, one of the legendary football coach’s former players says, “The best thing Coach Bryant did for me was kick me off the team.” Now, it might seem surprising for a college football player to say being kicked off the team […]

FMLA/CFRA Versus Other Leaves: Key Differences

In a CER webinar titled “FMLA, ADA, and California Workers’ Comp Overlap: Overcoming New Compliance Conflicts,” Jennifer K. Achtert and Todd B. Scherwin outlined some of the differences between the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)/ California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and other leaves. In particular, they compared FMLA/CFRA to the Americans with Disabilities Act […]

The 9 Steps to Solving Pay Compression

Pay compression is particularly difficult to address in times of economic hardship, says Wudyka, but there are steps you can take to eliminate it. Wudyka is managing principal of Westminster Associates in Wrentham, Massachusetts. His tips came during a recent webinar sponsored by BLR. 1) Revisit/rebuild “grade structure.” The first thing we can do is […]

Discipline and Termination: Near-Surefire Lawsuits

In yesterday’s CED, we covered “almost smoking gun” mistakes; today, more mistakes your managers make, plus an introduction to a helpful resource that will automate an important recordkeeping duty and take it off your plate once and for all.

Airline Fee Unbundling Challenges Travel Managers

The airline industry is helping to shift more of the cost of business travel away from the booking phase — the stage at which costs can be managed most easily — to the trip itself when expenses are incurred on the fly. This creates challenges for corporate travel managers — and the federal government, which […]

Employer’s Right to Reduce Pension Benefits

By Lyne Duhaime In most Canadian jurisdictions, employers are limited in retroactively reducing pension benefits. The Quebec Superior Court recently considered employers’ rights in this regard in Synertech Moulded Products, Division of Old Castle Buildings v. Tribunal Administratif du Québec et al. The court ordered the Quebec Regulator to register pension amendments proposed by the […]

The 9 Steps to Solving Pay Compression

In yesterday’s Advisor, consultant David Wudyka clarified the issues around pay compression; today, his 9 steps for curing it, plus an introduction to a timely webinar—How to Find and Fix the Pay Errors You Don’t Even Know You’re Making. Pay compression is particularly difficult to address in times of economic hardship, says Wudyka, but there […]