Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
By Patricia M. Trainor, J.D.BLR Legal Editor In yesterday’s Advisor, we began our look at the 12 biggest risks for HR in a down economy, as seen by attorney Allison West. Today, we’ll look at the final six of those risks and see how training is the key to avoiding them. West’s suggestions came during […]
by Nancy Williams Certain NCAA rules designed to ensure “amateur status” of student athletes may violate federal antitrust laws, according to a decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling came in a case filed by Ed O’Bannon, a former All-American basketball player at UCLA. O’Bannon discovered that his name, likeness, and […]
Properly classifying someone as either an independent contractor or employee is one of the biggest problems employers have when adhering to FLSA requirements. Do you know when it is okay to classify someone as an independent contractor and when they should be classified as an employee instead? DOL Focus: Independent Contractor or Employee "One of […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR CEO and founder Bob Brady recently wrote about some of the more annoying aspects of meetings and e-mail exchanges, and he asked you to send in your top e-mail annoyances. Boy, did he ever push a hot button! Here is just sampling of the responses we received. […]
By Laurie Jirak, The Murray Law Group, P.C. The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota recently had to decide whether a railroad’s decision to terminate just one employee in a reduction in force was an unlawful retaliation against the employee for exercising his Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) rights.
It takes a lot of time and effort to deal with Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) issues, especially intermittent leave, says HR Manager Barbara Dahlen. Her pragmatic approach works, although she says she’s "not the most popular person" in her workplace. Dahlen says she’s "not a lawyer and doesn’t play one on TV." But […]
Many employers are reluctant to provide references for former employees because of the risk that giving a negative reference can lead to a defamation lawsuit. To deal with this problem, California has a reference immunity law. Under this law, truthful communications about job performance or employment qualifications of a current or former employee are privileged—and […]
Preliminary workplace fatality statistics for 2014 were recently released by California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR)—and they reflect a 16% decrease in workplace fatalities from the previous year. This is encouraging when compared with the preliminary data for the whole United States, which shows an increase of 2%.
Recent court rulings have emphasized the importance of having an easy and reliable procedure for reporting sexual harassment incidents. In fact, in many cases, the terms of your sexual harassment policy can make the difference between avoiding liability-or paying huge damages. But in an evolving aspect of the law, a surprising new federal appeals court […]
By Rosalind H. Cooper In most provinces across Canada, occupational health and safety legislation requires that employers and other workplace parties report injuries and incidents to the appropriate government ministry. While most reporting requirements relate to workplace injuries, there are also requirements to report certain types of incidents regardless of whether there is an associated […]