Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Workers’ enhanced ability under reform to get insurance apart from their employer reduces the importance of health insurance as a means to recruit, compensate and retain workers, a June 2011 study concludes. Researchers at McKinsey Quarterly also predicted that as many as 30 percent of employers could stop providing benefits to workers after health reform […]
What are an employer’s restrictions on requiring employees to speak only English while on the clock? We do business in English, and some employees are insulted when there are private conversations in other languages going on around them. It’s also a problem during breaks and lunch. — Matt P., HR Specialist in Sunnyvale
Retirement plans’ fortunes are tied to the financial markets — and how the federal government regulates them — and there has been no bigger development in that arena than the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010. The law made news Oct. 3, when presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized Dodd-Frank’s “too big to fail” provision, […]
The IRS is asking the public for input into a rule that will determine when an employer-sponsored health plan is offering “substantial coverage” of inpatient hospital and physician services. This will be part of new rules defining minimum value in employer-sponsored health coverage. Employer-sponsored coverage must meet two tests to comply with the employer mandate: […]
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 […]
We had an accident in the office last week, and we didn’t have a trained person around to attend to the injured employee. It looks like there might be a lawsuit attacking our accident and injury preparedness. In any event, the incident brought up the issue of how much first-aid skill we need to have […]
Democrats have reportedly agreed to drop the card-check provision of the controversial Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The card-check provision would have made it much easier for employees to form labor unions by allowing a majority of employees to unionize by signing card-check petitions. Under this provision, employers would no longer have been able to […]
One hundred percent of the 80 large law firms that participated in a recent survey report having a diversity committee. That number is up from 96 percent from last year’s Altman Weil Flash Survey — and it’s not the only indication that law firms are increasingly committed to diversity efforts. For instance, 58 percent say […]
Banquet sales managers do qualify for the administrative exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act — meaning no overtime is on the menu. So says the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Hines v. State Room, Inc. Plaintiffs in the case are former employees of banquet facilities that “host high-end wedding receptions and other […]