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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 […]

Trump

President Trump’s growing pains could benefit from business lessons

by Dan Oswald If he has learned one lesson in his four months as president, Donald Trump has certainly discovered that the scrutiny he receives as the “leader of the free world” and one of the most powerful people in the world is much greater than anything he has experienced previously. President Trump, long known […]

Wage/Hour Litigation = Easy Money for Lawyers

Wage-and-hour rules have been around for nearly three-quarters of a century—ever since FDR’s New Deal—so it’s hard to picture them triggering the next wave of employment litigation, but attorney Marc Jacuzzi, Esq. thinks otherwise.

Reasonable Accommodations: New Case Says You May Have To Allow Telecommuting; Tips For Managing Accommodations

Suppose an accommodation you’ve provided for a disabled employee isn’t working out. How far must you go to find a new accommodation? And do you have to consider telecommuting as an alternative? A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision zeroes in on these questions. And we’ll suggest ways to manage the accommodation process to […]

Race Discrimination: $131 Million Jury Verdict Hits Makers Of Wonder Bread

Yet another dramatic punitive damage award shows how juries can render potentially devastating employment-related verdicts. We previously reported on a pending lawsuit by 21 African-American workers at Northern California Wonder Bread bakeries for race discrimination. Now the verdict is in, and a San Francisco jury has awarded $11 million in compensatory damages and a whopping […]

How the Mighty Have Fallen (Again)

by Katherine Pollock Recently, we learned of a scandal out of the United States that cost a top CEO his job. On August 6, Mark Hurd, the chair, CEO, and president of Hewlett Packard for the past five years, “resigned” under intense pressure from the board. While it was an allegation of sexual harassment that […]

Employer’s Free Speech Rights Upheld

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion this week denying the application of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to have eight employees of the Santa Barbara News-Press, who were fired for engaging in union activity, reinstated.

Video Résumés: Is There Trouble in Sight?

Video résumés show jobseekers in all their glory, but is discrimination also part of the picture? Here are the two views on the subject. You’ve advertised for a spot in your organization, and now your e-mail inbox is bulging with résumés. As you work your way through the pile, one candidate has included a link […]

Shabby Treatment at Termination Begs for a Lawsuit

The way you treat the people you terminate can make the difference between an ex-employee who is upset but moving on, and an ex-employee who is angry and calling 1-800-LAWYER. Lin Grensing-Pophal, writing in Human Resource Executive, cited several tales that highlight what disgruntled employees might do: One made a false accusation of harassment that […]