Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Michael E. Barnsback For the past couple of years, the IRS has focused its enforcement efforts on the misclassification of independent contractors. Many employers improperly classify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying FICA taxes and providing benefits. Others make the mistake simply because they don’t understand the differences between the two classifications. Regardless, […]
IRS on July 9 announced that it intends to amend regulations to prohibit defined benefit retirement plans from replacing retiree benefits being paid through joint and survivor, single-life or other annuity benefits with lump-sum distributions or other accelerated payments. The change is effective immediately, IRS said. Notice 2015-49 will amend IRS required minimum distribution regulations […]
By Natalie Ramsey In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected the mixed-motive framework for disparate treatment claims filed under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). In reaching this pivotal decision, the Court made it clear that the analysis for age discrimination isn’t subject to the one-size-fits-all mixed-motive analysis applied in Title […]
New technologies and innovations have revolutionized society since prehistoric times, from the wheel and writing to gunpowder, the printing press, human flight, etc.—the list goes on and on. But that technologically driven societal change does not happen in a vacuum, especially in modern times.
AI safety has become an employee-relations issue. In the past week, mainstream reporting has covered an Anthropic researcher resigning over safety concerns and bipartisan senators pressing OpenAI about whether advanced AI systems can elude human control. That public discussion will reach workplaces where HR leaders are already managing anxiety about job loss, deskilling, surveillance, and […]
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released new guidelines interpreting and expanding on last year’s Supreme Court rulings on automatic employer liability for sexual harassment by supervisors. The new guidelines are a helpful benchmark for measuring whether your anti-harassment policies and practices make the grade.
In fact, more than 65 percent of companies that participated in a recent survey reported that they are using social learning technology. “State of the Industry Study: A Pulse on Social Learning” surveyed 500-plus decision makers at companies of all sizes and in a variety of industries. The study, conducted by Saba®, in partnership with […]
What a response to our recent story about “the employee who was too good”! (Go here to see original story.) Some readers called for a boycott, some lashed out at management, and one lashed out at HR. Although most readers heaped lavish praise on Mr. Foster, one reader wasn’t convinced that he was such a […]
Last year, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, ruled in favor of an employer that was accused of sex discrimination for requiring female employees only to wear makeup on the job (see the Feb. 2005 issue of the California Employer Advisor). The Ninth Circuit subsequently agreed to have […]