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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 […]

Case Management—What’s Really Happening?

What’s happening with case management in the real world? How do you handle routine requests from your employees? What about not-so-routine requests, like complaints? What are your competitors up to? Help us find out! Please participate in our brief survey, and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are […]

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 […]

Employers, Employees Increasingly at Odds Over Wellness Incentives

As employers continue to ramp up their use of wellness incentives, employee resistance also is on the rise, recent studies suggest. While wellness programs in general enjoy broad public support (76 percent of respondents), a majority (62 percent) oppose requiring employees to pay more for health coverage if they do not participate, according to a […]

Independent Contractor vs. Employee

by Gary S. Fealk Businesses often find it advantageous to hire independent contractors to perform a variety of duties in place of employees. Using independent contractors can reduce expenses for payroll taxes and benefits, avoid the impact of laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and […]

Sexual Orientation Discrimination and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

by Gary Fealk There has been a push in recent years to provide homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual individuals with protection against discrimination, including discrimination in the workplace. There is even proposed federal legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), on the horizon that may pass in the next session of Congress. Certain states have enacted discrimination […]

Supreme Court rejects random alcohol testing policy in dangerous workplace

By Kyla Stott-Jess, Katie Clayton, and Hannah Roskey Canada’s highest court has ruled that random drug and alcohol testing in the workplace violates privacy rights. In Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 v. Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd., the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) considered the validity of a random alcohol testing […]

Phoenix bans sexual orientation discrimination

by Dinita L. James On February 26, the Phoenix City Council voted to amend its human relations ordinance to include lesbian, gay, and transgender persons as well as disabled individuals among the groups protected from employment discrimination. The 5-3 vote came after a nearly five-hour public hearing before an estimated 500 people in the city’s […]