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Disaster Preparedness Checklist for Employers: Part 2

The 2007 hurricane season started June 1, and experts at the National Weather Service’s Hurricane Center predict it’s going to be a busy year. Last week, we examined what employers need to do before disaster strikes. This week, we’ll look at what you need to do during and after a disaster strikes. Even if you […]

Attorney Blasts DOL’s ‘Gotcha Approach’ to Workplace Enforcement

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division’s (WHD) recent enforcement efforts represent a flawed approach that assumes incorrectly that employers are deliberately violating the law, according to David Fortney, cofounder of Fortney & Scott, LLC, in Washington, D.C., who testified before a U. S. House of Representatives subcommittee November 3. Fortney, editor […]

HR Leadership in Times of Crisis

By Harry Hutson and Martha Johnson Organizations are headed for more crises. Tumult and disruption in the world are more than likely. Some would say they are unavoidable, inevitable, or even guaranteed. For most Human Resources professionals, this is a fact of life. In our experience, HR deserves credit for being watchful and wired, reassuringly […]

Hot List: Wall Street Journal’s Bestselling Hardcover Business Books

The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the Wall Street Journal with data from Nielsen BookScan. 1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel […]

Exempt Employees: U-Haul Faces $10 Million Liability For Misclassifying Managers

A Los Angeles court has ruled that U-Haul International Inc. improperly classified 480 current and former employees as managers and denied them overtime pay. The court found that U-Haul failed to show the employees spent more than 50% of their time on management duties. The company did meet the other criteria for classifying workers as […]

A New Day for Union Relations: EFCA, Obama, and the NLRB

by Mark I. Schickman We have been telling you about a big legislative change to the federal labor law around the corner, titled the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). If passed (which appears likely), it will require labor union recognition based on employee petitions without any union election. Of course, that move all but eliminates […]

EEOC Files Sexual Harassment Case Against Oregon Agriculture Employers

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed its third sexual harassment case in less than a year against Oregon agricultural employers. The most recent suit charges that sexual harassment and retaliation occurred at Willamette Tree Wholesale, a retail nursery with 140 acres of farmland and a garden supply store in Molalla, Oregon, where Latina […]

Separating Extravagant Perks from Those that Yield High ROIs

Many employers think that they need to offer things like table tennis in large and custom-designed breakrooms, organic juice bars, bring-your-dog-to-work days, and free lunch every other day—especially when it comes to hiring younger employees—to retain employees and keep them happy.