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By Kate McGovern Tornone, Editor While courts have held that various employer actions may constitute retaliation under federal employment laws, coworker “discourtesies” do not rise to that level under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal judge ruled recently.
Most employers are aware that it’s illegal to retaliate against an employee who complains about discrimination. But did you know you are also at risk if you discipline or fire someone who merely supports a co-worker’s bias complaint? A Los Angeles employer recently learned this costly lesson when it was hit with a big jury […]
Sometimes it’s necessary to strip away all the preconceived notions about how to succeed in an industry, reshuffle roles, and take an untraditional approach to change things for the better. That’s even true—maybe especially true—in industries as steeped in tradition as winemaking. Typically, there are three groups involved in winemaking: The winemakers, The distributors, and […]
Caesars Palace in Las Vegas employed Catharina Costa as a warehouse worker and heavy-equipment operator. She was the only woman in this job and in her local Team- sters bargaining unit. Eventually, Costa was fired after an altercation with a male co-worker.When Costa sued for sex discrimination, Caesars contended her termination stemmed from Costa’s lengthy […]
When it comes to immigration enforcement, no employer is immune from immigration scrutiny. An organization that ignores problems with its procedures designed to keep a legal workforce is risking ruinous fines and penalties. Employers have an obligation to hire workers who are legally authorized to work in the United States. Even without the passage of […]
A Catholic church’s music director is a “minister” and therefore ineligible to bring employment discrimination claims against the Church, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, implementing a new U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Phillip Cannata worked as the music director for St. John Neumann Catholic Church, part of the Catholic Diocese of Austin. He […]
Yesterday’s Advisor presented four sexual harassment scenarios. Today, we’ll look at two more, and introduce an efficient training tool that will help you eliminate harassment and other employee behavior challenges. (Go here for the first four scenarios. The scenarios are from training programs in the BLR® Employee Training Center.) Jake P Scares Penny R Penny […]
Premiums for employer-sponsored coverage increased at a lower rate this year, but this could be largely ascribed to a growing rate of enrollment in high-deductible plans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s (KFF) annual health benefits survey.
While much of the focus on the recent election has been on the results of the presidential and federal and state legislative races, in Wisconsin, city of Milwaukee voters also passed a binding referendum creating an ordinance providing sick leave benefits for all employees working within the city. Effective immediately, the ordinance is being enforced […]
You know that green programs are good for business, so why is it so hard to get upper management buy-in? Maybe it’s because they don’t fully understand all of the benefits of a green program. BLR’s newly-published Top 10 Best Practices in HR Management for 2012 offers help. Here are some convincing reasons to help […]