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Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) professionals are being increasingly targeted by corporate America — as both employees and customers. According to new research, the industry doing the best job of it is the financial services sector. In the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) most recent annual Corporate Equality Index, 32 employers in the financial services […]
The amount of back wages and overtime pay collected by the U.S. Department of Labor for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act is down slightly — but don’t assume that means DOL is no longer on the warpath. According to data provided to Smart HR Manager, DOL collected almost $130 million in back wages […]
A San Francisco judge has dramatically sliced a recent jury award of over $131 million to African-American workers who were discriminated againstby their employer, Interstate Bakeries Corp. Calling the verdict against the maker of Wonder Bread excessive, the judge reduced the original award, which included compensation for lost wages and pain and suffering, together with […]
In the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the focus has been on the students—so much so that several news commentators have incorrectly referred to the deceased as “the 17 students who died in the shooting.” Among the 17 people who lost their lives were three adults, who […]
With layoffs and downsizings all around us, today’s guest columnist, Maurizio Morselli, wonders whether HR can help ensure that these “staff-ectomies” are carefully planned and cut no deeper than absolutely necessary. Organizations and individuals are faced with new challenges every day. The global “FDD” (fiscal decadence disorder) is the latest malady that has created enormous […]
With the HIPAA deadline for obtaining a health plan identifier less than two months away, plan sponsors have encountered major problems trying to get one — if they’ve started at all, according to a poll conducted by the ERISA Industry Committee. “ERIC’s members are really struggling with the requirements for health plan identifiers,” said Gretchen […]
In the case of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave to care for a family member, once the employer has determined whether an individual employee is eligible for FMLA leave, many times the next hurdle is determining if the family member is covered by the FMLA. This determination has become somewhat more complicated as […]
For the third year, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) teamed up with Winning Workplaces to create its list of Top Small Workplaces for 2009. As the article notes, when faced with tough economic times, many employers try to cut just about everything that may be considered nonessential, including employee benefits, wellness plans, and other innovative […]
The prospect of greater automation in a variety of industries understandably has many workers worried about their long-term employment prospects. What is the likelihood of a given employee’s job being rendered obsolete by advancing technology? Even if the role doesn’t disappear entirely, the need for human labor could be drastically reduced.
In the waning days of the COBRA premium subsidy, The Commonwealth Fund is calling for the program to be resuscitated as a way to help unemployed and uninsured workers until health care reform is fully implemented. In an Aug. 24 issue brief, the Fund noted that “the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has […]