Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Thousands of employers get a figurative knock-on-the-door each year from an investigator from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. WHD is the agency responsible for enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act, among other laws. A visit from WHD […]
Here’s a true story. Dennis is 28 years old and has Down syndrome. After high school, he lived in a county group house and spent five years stuffing calendars into cardboard tubes—reliable but unrewarding work. A former student of one of the authors, now a restaurant owner, hired him as a waiter. Dennis quickly mastered […]
Ladders are simple devices—and that may be their biggest fault. Workers tend to mistake simplicity for harmlessness, often overlooking necessary precautions. More precautions are necessary to stay safe on portable ladders than your employees might think. For example, even before setting up a ladder, the site has to be checked for safety. Say the site […]
by Norm Keith and Shane D. Todd As another reminder of the importance of health and safety in all workplaces all across Canada, we report on the continuing legal saga involving the December 2009 fatalities at Metron Construction. On June 26, 2015, Vadim Kazenelson, the project manager overseeing a construction project for Metron, was found […]
Employers know that locating terminated vested participants and beneficiaries owed benefits under a retirement plan can be difficult—in part because people move, change jobs, and will forget they may have a balance or benefit owed to them under a prior employer’s plan. However, employers generally have an obligation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act […]
Tonight’s episode serves as a good example of team building exercises gone wrong. Very wrong. But, believe it or not, Michael’s efforts to enlighten his staff about Kelly’s Indian culture was not the worst example of “team building” I’ve ever seen. It was a close call, but the award for “worst team building exercise” belongs […]
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is the title of a science fiction horror film that was recently released worldwide. The horror that occurred behind the scenes in the making of the movie rivaled the fictional onscreen terror. First, the leading actress’ stuntwoman, Olivia Jackson, sustained life-threatening injuries, including cerebral trauma, a crushed face, a severed […]
There is a growing legal precedent regarding when courts can evaluate an Americans with Disabilities Act claim under a new, broader disability definition: the adverse employment actions at issue must have occurred after the Jan. 1, 2009, effective date of the ADA Amendments Act. For an employee who allegedly was discriminated against in 2008, this […]
Outback Steakhouse will pay $65,000 to a server it fired because of his traumatic brain injury, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The payment will settle a lawsuit EEOC filed on the server’s behalf. The commission alleged that John Woods was fired after a new manager took over an Outback restaurant in Phoenix. Woods worked […]
Organizations of all shapes and sizes have been hiring immigrants from hundreds of different countries for various types of work for centuries. And right now, immigrants make up about 17% of the entire U.S. labor force, with most immigrants (both documented and undocumented) finding jobs in domestic-related, service-related, construction-related, and farming or agricultural fields.