Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
This morning, President Barack Obama issued a statement from the White House voicing his support for — and urging Congress to move forward on — the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA). In the statement, the President referred to the bill as a “commonsense bill” that is one of the key recommendations of the Equal Pay Enforcement […]
by Ralph Nero and Ida Martin Can an employer require a single parent to start occasionally working the night shift? A recent board of arbitration decision out of Alberta answered — yes. This Alberta decision is the latest in our coverage of decisions wrestling with the workplace application of discrimination on the basis of family […]
Today the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) hosted a live webcast interview with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. During the webcast, both parties made the case for the necessity of comprehensive immigration reform, decrying individual state movements such as the controversial immigration law in Arizona as a means for racial profiling […]
The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the New York Times on July 19. 1. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. The people who saw the real estate crash coming and made billions from their foresight. 2. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm […]
The Department of Labor (DOL) has a tool available on its website for employers that want to make sure their policies and practices don’t discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities. The online Disability Nondiscrimination Law Advisor, available at www.dol.gov/elaws/odep.htm, helps employers determine which federal disability nondiscrimination laws apply to their business, including: Title I of […]
Arizona’s new immigration law, Senate Bill (SB) 1070, authorizes state and local law enforcement officials to inquire into the immigration status of any person “where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States.” The law regulates aliens directly, not by means of the employer-employee relationship. Nevertheless, […]
President Barack Obama recently issued a memo directing federal agencies to extend benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of federal employees to the extent permitted by current law. The memo begins: For far too long, many of our Government’s hard-working, dedicated LGBT employees have been denied equal access to the basic rights and benefits their […]
Administaff, Inc., a nationwide company that provides full-service HR services to small and medium-size businesses, has agreed to pay $115,000 and furnish substantial remedial relief to settle a religious harassment lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Baltimore. According to the EEOC’s suit, Texas-based Administaff and Conn-x, LLC, a Florida-based cable service […]
Litigation Value: Settling various claims related to Dwight’s bat hunting = $30,000; replacing shredded textbook = $100; convincing your coworker you’re a vampire = priceless. Given that a colleague of mine has already thoroughly covered the employment law issues in last night’s repeat, let’s rewind to one of my favorite episodes from Season 3 — […]
by Robert C. Nagle Employers can expect increased enforcement efforts from federal and state labor and tax authorities over what’s believed to be a rising tide of misclassification of employees as “independent contractors.” There can be significant payroll savings associated with classifying workers as contractors. For example, employers typically aren’t required to withhold or pay […]