Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on the state of the states’ information technology (IT) projects supporting health insurance marketplaces. It appears that there’s still a ways to go before everything is fully up and running.
The next three months are crunch time. Employers have to get moving on several deadlines, most of them required under health care reform. Some reform rules should have taken effect in 2014, but were subject to the year-long delay instituted by the Obama administration. Health Plan Identifiers Nov. 5, 2014 is the deadline for large group […]
Spectators could be excused for confusing a recent U.S. Supreme Court oral argument session with an episode of TLC’s What Not to Wear. On Nov. 4, the Court heard arguments in Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp.(No. 12-417) which focused on how to define “clothes” versus protective equipment and whether time spent donning those items is compensable. The […]
The Trump administration’s action rescinding guidance to public schools on restroom policies for transgender students sends a different signal than guidance from federal agencies dealing with employment, but the real message for employers is to stay tuned. On February 22, the Trump administration revoked Obama administration guidelines that advised public schools to allow transgender students […]
Employers have long used reductions in force (RIFs) as a high-risk but familiar response to economic pressure, restructuring, or strategic change. Traditionally, employers evaluated RIF-related risk through relatively discrete lenses—compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, potential discrimination claims, and the adequacy of internal documentation. Today, that approach may no longer be […]
What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? How about a nice romantic interlude … say, an audio conference on workplace romance? We’ll get to that in a minute. First, as promised, attorney Joseph Beachboard on Love Contracts. In yesterday’s Advisor, employment law attorney Joseph Beachboard discussed the challenges of romance in the workplace. Today, he […]
Finding the right employee can be extremely difficult, particularly in an economy with a historically low unemployment rate, when potential employees can often pick and choose between a number of labor-starved employers. Not only is it difficult—it’s expensive.
December is often a time for office parties, gift exchanges, and general holiday cheer in the workplace, but the season also can bring claims of discrimination and harassment if employers aren’t mindful of a religiously diverse workforce. Legal hazards come in many forms. For example, non-Christians may feel discriminated against or harassed by all the […]
At Earl Scheib Inc. of California, an automotive paint shop chain, most sales transactions are in cash, and only shop managers are authorized to handle cash. If there’s an unresolved discrepancy between the shop’s bank deposit records and cash transactions, the manager is asked to sign an “acknowledgment of reimbursement” agreeing to reimburse the company […]
Gov. Davis has approved legislation taking aim at corporate corruption. The new laws, modeled on the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act, protect employees who blow the whistle on possible corporate transgressions, create steep new fines for not disclosing corporate financial fraud, and add an important new workplace posting requirement. Here’s an overview of what you need to […]