Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
It was a surprise birthday party for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), says Susan Schoenfeld, JD; on February 5, 2013, exactly 20 years after the FMLA was signed, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a Final Rule ahead of the planned regulatory schedule. Just what HR was hoping for—more complicated regulations. The […]
However, warns Evelyn Gentry, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, there are downsides for employers that use unpaid interns, the most notable being potential violations of the FLSA. Misclassifying employees as unpaid interns, and thereby denying them federal minimum wage and overtime wages can result in costly litigation, civil fines, or both. Furthermore, employers who willfully violate […]
For the first time, online holiday spending is expected to exceed in-store spending. So finds the 2017 Holiday Survey from Deloitte, the 32nd annual holiday survey conducted by the professional services firm.
We’re having problems with people coming back from FMLA/CFRA leave. Two particular situations worry us. In one case, the manager says, “I’ve redistributed the work and there’s no job anymore.” And in the other, the manager says, “We’ve hired a temp who is much better—we don’t want the person back.” Don’t we still have to […]
By Amy McLaughlin, JD, Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew As an employment lawyer, the first question I ask clients who are dealing with a challenging personnel matter is what type of documentation exists. Why? Because in the world of employment litigation, documentation is king!
By Derek Knoechel As the authors of the July 13, 2009, Northern Exposure article “Canadian Employers May Be Obligated to Provide References” indicate, a positive reference letter can be worth its weight in gold to an employee who has been fired. But employers often don’t want to provide reference letters, and a reference letter can […]
By: Elaine Quayle It’s bad enough when an employee behaves badly on a business trip—but it’s even worse when the incident is videoed and goes viral internationally! Media reports say that Oleg Vedernikov, principal cellist with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, was traveling with the orchestra by train when he propped up his bare feet on […]
If you knew of a benefit that half of your workforce wants, and which they say would boost their productivity, would you embrace it? The results of a new survey show that telecommuting is the benefit half of workers want so much that some are willing to take a pay cut to get it. However, […]
By Rachel Ravary and Philippe Lacoursière McCarthy Tetrault Chalk one up for employers! In an era when the courts seem to be on a slippery slope of broadening employee rights, Canada’s highest court has given employers a break when it comes to assessing the costs of dismissing an employee without cause. In its decision earlier […]