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So You Think You Can Dance?

Litigation Value:  $250,000 The “Café Disco” episode of The Office might as well have been called “The Hostile Work Environment.” Or “The No Work Environment.” Dunder Mifflin Scranton turned into a coffee house dance bar at the expense of any corporate productivity. A hostile work environment exists when an employee experiences workplace harassment and fears […]

‘Tis the season: resolutions for the new year

by Leslie Bakken Oliver It’s that time again, when many of us take inventory of the past year and make resolutions for the coming year—for example, to do better, work smarter, become more efficient, or waste less time. For some of you, focusing on aspirations for the coming year may be part of a formalized […]

Illinois governor signs law prohibiting criminal history inquiries on job applications

by Steven L. Brenneman Fox, Swibel, Levin & Carroll, LLP On July 21, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act, which will prohibit most private-sector employers and employment agencies with 15 or more employees from asking applicants about their criminal histories and conducting criminal background checks until after […]

Supreme Court allows judicial review of EEOC conciliation efforts

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed employers at least a small victory by unanimously ruling that courts are allowed to review the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) conciliation efforts in discrimination cases. On April 29, the Court imposed moderate standards for the conciliation efforts the EEOC is required to make before it files a lawsuit […]

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DOL Close to Raising Overtime Threshold

The United States has a very large number of employment and labor laws and regulations. Compliance with these rules can often be a daunting task, especially for smaller businesses without the luxury of a full-time HR or compliance staff.

As new overtime rule nears, questions surface about salary threshold

by Tammy Binford As time winds down for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to release its final rule changing who is eligible to collect overtime pay, reports are surfacing that the salary threshold may be somewhat lower than the figure originally proposed but still considerably higher than the level in the current rule.  The […]

Tennessee legislation will amend THRA, TPPA

by David L. Johnson On May 13, the Tennessee General Assembly passed House Bill 1954/Senate Bill 2126, which will significantly amend the Tennessee Human Rights Act (THRA) and the Tennessee Public Protection Act (TPPA) in a manner favorable to employers. Governor Bill Haslam is expected to sign the bill later this month. Once signed, it […]

‘Gee … You Don’t Act Gay’

In yesterday’s Advisor, attorneys MichaelCohen and Marc Scheiner covered some basics of dealing with sexual orientation discrimination. Today, we’ll cover their comments on awareness training and take a look at a special program that helps HR managers in small or even one-person departments. There’s a new level of awareness training needed around sexual orientation, says […]

Human Resource Metrics: Connecting Human Resource Management with Organizational Performance and the Bottom Line

Executive Summary Human resource metrics are a must for every HR department Human resource management must align human resource metrics with the business metrics of their organization Human resource metrics should focus on results, not activities Human resource metrics have become a requirement for every modern HR department to show the organizational value of money […]