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Utah: Compromise, Cooler Heads Will Prevail

by Darryl J. Lee, Wood Jenkins LLC Utah sends all of its incumbents back to the U.S. Congress, together with a new Tea Party constitutionalist, Republican Mike Lee, who easily won the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by Bob Bennett. (Bennett couldn’t make it out of Utah’s Republican caucus.) Jim Matheson, Utah’s one Democratic congressman, […]

Can HR Help Cure ‘Fiscal Decadence Disorder’?

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 […]

Employers must comply with new HIPAA privacy and security regulations

by Gene Magee As if learning the ropes under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) isn’t enough, employers offering health benefits to employees also need to gear up to comply with new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations that go into effect later this year. This article provides an overview of where the new […]

News Notes: Computer Tampering Lands Employee In Jail

A systems administrator has been ordered to serve one year in jail for destroying computer files worth $237,550 at Digital Link, a Sunnyvale engineering firm. An Chi Tran quit his job after his supervisor gave him a written reprimand. The company then changed its passwords to block his access to its central computer system. But […]

What Does Your Employee Handbook Say About Breastfeeding?

California law requires that employers provide female employees who wish to express breast milk for nursing infants with: A reasonable opportunity to take breaks for the purpose of expressing breast milk, which can be timed with the employee’s regular break schedule; and Reasonable access to a private location to express breast milk, other than public […]

Affirmative Action: Employer Hit With $5.4 Million Verdict After Firing Recruiter Who Disputed Minority-Hiring Report

Karen Yarborough, a recruiting manager for Pleasanton-based PeopleSoft, complained to her supervisors that the company’s affirmative action hiring data was false. Then, just two days before an on-site audit of the software maker’s employment data by the Office of Federal Contracts Compliance Programs, Yarborough was fired. Now an Alameda County jury’s multimillion-dollar verdict for Yarborough […]

Supreme Court Rules on ‘Me Too’ Evidence

The U.S. Supreme Court has completed its review of a key Kansas age discrimination case, settling a split between federal courts on the admissibility of “me too” evidence. “Me too” evidence is testimony by non-parties that alleges discrimination at the hands of persons who played no part in the challenged employment decision. In the present […]

FLSA Class Action Overtime Suits—Are You Next?

If you don’t do an FLSA wage and hour audit, someone else will, says attorney Tom Makris. And it won’t be just the government. These days, it could be a potential business partner … or even your banker. It started with mergers and acquisitions, says attorney Tom Makris. Now it’s spread to far more routine […]

Who Packs Your Parachutes?

By Dan Oswald President, M. Lee Smith Publishers Just My E-pinion If you’re a pilot or paratrooper or skydiver, you pretty much depend on the person who packs your parachute. In today’s e-pinion, M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC president Dan Oswald challenges you to ask, Who packs your parachutes? Charles Plumb was a Navy jet […]