Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Hannah Roskey There has been some controversy in Canadian law on the issue of whether the financial circumstances of the employer should play a role in deciding what constitutes reasonable notice of termination or pay in lieu of notice. Since multiple factors go into deciding what’s reasonable in many circumstances, why not this one? […]
Every U.S. state has a legislative body. From this point, the similarities end. The state retains the discretion to determine the specific details of how its government, including the legislative branch, will operate, and these specifics are typically set forth in that state’s constitution. Thus, just as the political issues affecting one state may be […]
by Douglas R. Chamberlain When facing financial difficulties, employees often look to their retirement plans as a possible source of needed funds. Many plans offer participant loans or permanent withdrawals, the latter generally on a hardship basis. However, plan loans and withdrawals can jeopardize the employee’s retirement benefits, and both are subject to complex rules […]
After a 5-4 ruling delivered January 21 by the U.S. Supreme Court, corporations and labor unions will now be permitted to spend as much as they wish on independent activities in support or opposition of presidential and congressional candidates. The restrictions on campaign expenditures had been in place for decades. In Citizens United v. Federal […]
More often than not, managers avoid giving honest evaluations. Maybe they fear causing hurt feelings or maybe they don’t know what to do, but the result is the same—a lost lawsuit. The solution? The two Cs—Clarify and Coach. A Cautionary Tale—How Many Zeros? One juror explained the simple system his jury had used to determine […]
A landmark Supreme Court ruling on relief available under ERISA in employee benefit cases is bringing cases back to life that we thought were dead and gone. In CIGNA v. Amara, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 16 ruled that ERISA’s enforcement provision allowing for “appropriate equitable relief” — ERISA Section 1132(a)(3) — aka Section […]
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) provides heat illness prevention training to employers throughout the state. DOSH has also published the training program, in both English and Spanish, on the agency’s heat illness prevention website at www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/HeatIllnessInfo.html. The training program covers what DOSH considers to be the essential components of its heat […]
It’s no question that for most of us, what we do and where we do it are key elements of our identity. After all, if we’re working 40 hours per week, that means about half of our waking lives is spent working, and for many professionals, it’s much more—not to mention the amount of time […]
By Jamie L. Leary, JD, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC To avoid triggering excise taxes under the play-or-pay mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), an applicable large employer (ALE) must offer minimum-value health insurance to its full-time employees at affordable premiums, as defined by the ACA.
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 […]