Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
On April 24, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that it will review a regional director’s decision that Northwestern University’s scholarship football players are employees who are eligible to unionize. The Board’s announcement came one day before a secret-ballot election, which will go on as scheduled. The NLRB said the ballots will be impounded […]
A number of cases in recent years have raised the thorny issue of whether the Americans With Disabilities Act protects workers whose disabilities don’t necessarily affect them at work because they take medication or use corrective devices. Now, in a trio of important new decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Equal Employment Opportunity […]
Employers can’t be instantly ready for how health reform will transform their health plans in 2014; they have to do all the heavy lifting in 2013 in order to achieve preparedness, an attorney from the Epstein Becker & Green law firm said on Dec. 19. He advised employers to see health reform-driven coverage changes in […]
Conflict resolution. Sometimes it seems that’s all we do. Today, we follow up on yesterday’s story on mediation, and present a new audio conference that helps line supervisors and managers learn how to do it right. With the high costs of litigation, mediation is an increasingly popular way to deal with conflicts at work. However, […]
It’s a sobering realization, says attorney Kara Shea, that DOL statistics show 73 percent of its investigations result in findings of violations, but you can push the odds in your favor. Shea, who is a member of Nashville-based law firm Miller & Martin PLLC, made her remarks at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently […]
Self-funded companies can do a lot to improve employee health through wellness programs and creating “micro health delivery systems” (my term) with goals tailored to the firm’s employee population. The catch may be that only employers that are very large, very innovative and want to get very involved in health care may be able do […]
Too often, managers avoid giving honest evaluations. Maybe they fear causing hurt feelings or maybe they don’t know what to do, but the result is the same—a lost lawsuit. The solution? The two Cs—Clarify and Coach. You know you should be coaching Terry, but you’re busy, and Terry’s doing OK. Well, OK is overstating it, […]
Oregon’s new “ban the box” law takes effect January 1, meaning employers will be prohibited from asking applicants to check a box inquiring about criminal history on employment applications. The new law makes it unlawful to exclude an applicant from an initial interview solely because of a past criminal conviction. An applicant is unlawfully excluded […]
By Jennifer Carsen, JD, Legal Editor