Author: Kathryn McGovern

ADA Ruling: Employer Not Required to Create New Positions to Accommodate Employee with Broken Leg

Job creation is the economy’s number one problem, but it’s reasonable to predict that not one job will be created because an employee broke his or her leg. That won’t stop some workers from trying, though, as shown in this Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) case   In White v. Interstate Distributor, Co., a fired […]

Untethered Workforce Makes Communicating Comp a Challenge

The important lesson from yesterday’s Advisor was to view incentive compensation as a way to drive business results. Determine what is important to your customers, and then create incentive goals to support that. Divide your employees into business groups, advises Mark Mitchell, managing director of American’s Customer Experience area. Let the employees have a voice […]

Be Clear About Your Paid-Time-Off Buckets

Yesterday, guest columnist Cathleen Yonahara of Freelance Cooper & Foreman, LLP, discussed a recent case in which a departing employee claimed that his employer’s sabbatical program was actually vacation that had to be paid out upon termination. Today: The court’s ruling in the case.

The Single Most Common Mistake in Writing Job Descriptions

In yesterday’s Advisor, attorney Olivia Goodkin revealed the top four reasons you need job descriptions. Today, her take on how to craft the job description, plus an introduction to BLR’s popular encyclopedia of pre-written job descriptions. Goodkin who is a partner in the Los Angeles office of law firm Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff, gave her […]

NYPD’s Blue: 4,000 Police Sergeants Are Owed Back Pay to 2001

Four thousand New York City Police Department (NYPD) sergeants are not exempt executives under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because their primary duty is law enforcement, not management, a federal court has found. As a result, the court found the city liable to the sergeants for back overtime pay going back to 2001. The […]

Targeted Incentive Comp Works For Airline, Employees

Mark Mitchell, managing director of American’s Customer Experience area, tells the story: “In the middle 2000s, maybe 2003 to 2006, as American worked very diligently to take the right path financially and not go through the bankruptcy courts, we preserved cash and ceased investing in some of our core products. Our customers, our employees— maybe […]

Is All Paid Time Off Considered “Vacation”?

California employers are familiar with the state law making “use it or lose it” vacation policies unlawful, so you must pay employees any unused, accrued vacation upon termination of employment. But what is a vacation policy? Is all paid time off considered “vacation”?

No Laws Require ‘Em, So Why Bother with Job Descriptions

Job descriptions are probably the dullest job in HR, so why bother if you don’t have to? Although there is no law requiring job descriptions, there are compelling reasons to maintain them, says attorney Olivia Goodkin. Goodkin who is a partner in the Los Angeles office of law firm Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff, gave her […]

Promises, Promises: IRS Clarifications on Cafeteria Plans, FSAs, HSAs

Benefits administrators can be forgiven if their response to the IRS’ latest plan to issue guidance on cafeteria plans is “Promises, Promises!” Finalizing cafeteria plan regulations is the most far-reaching benefits-related item on the IRS 2011-2012 Priority Guidance Plan. The agency proposed café plan regs in 2007 and has been saying that it will finalize […]

Remembering 9-11, and Protecting Your Business From New Terrorist Threats

It’s unfortunate that as we reflect back on 9-11 and the lives that were sacrificed, we also worry about new terrorist threats allegedly being made near this important 10th anniversary. But one way to conquer worry is to be prepared, and here are some important emergency management planning tips that employers should consider. But first, […]