Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
As employers are finding out all too often, getting tough and firing employees who harass other workers can bring on another big headache-a wrongful termination lawsuit. Although the California Supreme Court addressed this troublesome issue earlier this year, it’s been unclear exactly what steps you should take to protect yourself from being sued by an […]
Sometimes an unemployment claim can come from out of the blue. And if the worker who files it was improperly classified as an independent contractor, it could trigger an audit—leaving you open to having to pay back payroll taxes and penalties. We’ll look at a new ruling that involved a moonlighting worker who filed for […]
A heart surgery group practice agreed to pay $100,000 to settle federal allegations that it chronically neglected standard HIPAA requirements such as risk assessment, training and business associate contracts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced April 17. This settlement, coming hard on the heels of HHS’ $1.5 million agreement with BlueCross […]
by New York Employment Law Letter New York City employers need to be ready for the city’s new Earned Sick Time Act by the April 1 effective date. Beginning April 1, the law, passed last summer over the veto of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, requires private-sector employers with 20 or more employees in New York City […]
Loren Peterson, the former president of financial printer Bowne of Los Angeles, was fired after allegedly admitting he violated the company’s sexual harassment policy. The incident involved comments he was accused of making while dancing with secretary Maria Gonzales on a company-sponsored trip to Club Med. But Peterson charged that the company used this as […]
Litigation related to the misclassification of nonexempt employees has been heating up over the past few years, and class actions are a legitimate and potentially costly worry for employers.
Freddy Hernandez, a lead technician for Spacelabs Medical Inc. in Chatsworth and then in Redmond, Wash., was abruptly terminated after 20 years on the job—just weeks after he reported that a supervisor harassed a co-worker. We’ll explain why the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, said Hernandez can sue Spacelabs for retaliation.
The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act, dubbed the “bounty hunter” or “sue your boss” law, went into effect on Jan. 1, 2004. The controversial law gave employees in California almost unlimited rights to sue their employers for just about any Labor Code violation—and to recover the statutory penalties and attorney’s fees.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced a record-setting settlement resolving a class-action lawsuit against Sears, Roebuck and Co. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for $6.2 million and significant remedial relief. The consent decree, approved on September 29, represents the largest ADA settlement in a single lawsuit in EEOC history. The EEOC’s […]
by Mark I. Schickman I’ve received lots of e-mails recently about the major conflict still waging over the recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys. You wrote that the U.S. government, as an employer, should be able to fire any employee, so what was wrong if the Attorney General or the President had them fired? That […]