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Employer to Pay $5M To Settle Inflexible Leave Policy Allegations

An employer will pay almost $5 million to settle claims it automatically fired employees who used 12 weeks of medical leave and were not ready to return to work, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Nov. 9. The settlement resolves claims EEOC filed alleging that the automatic termination policy violated the reasonable accommodation provisions […]

Hot List: Bestselling “Business Life” books on Amazon.com

Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, March 7, in the “Business Life” section of the “Business and Investing” category. 1. The Rules of Work, Expanded Edition: A Definitive Code for Personal Success (Richard Templar’s Rules) by Richard Templar. […]

Accommodating Disabled Employees: New Case Says Union Contract Doesn’t Have To Bend To ADA Accommodations; Tips On Avoiding Problems

Last year, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a seniority system must give way to accommodations unless they cause an undue hardship. The case involved an employer-created seniority system, but it left open the question of its application to seniority provisions contained in union contracts. Now, […]

Severance Pay: Court’s Ruling that Severance Package Wasn’t an Employee Benefit Plan Has Expensive Consequences for Employer

A new federal court case involves an all-too-familiar scenario. An employer acquired a new business and had to terminate the old workforce. The employer, however, needed to keep some workers around for a few months, so it offered them a severance deal. But when the employer later tried to change the severance terms, it found […]

NLRB nominees face opposition during Senate committee hearing

On May 16, President Barack Obama’s nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) went before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the two nominees who were selected as recess appointees in 2012 failed to impress the committee’s ranking member, Senator Lamar Alexander. Alexander (R-Tennessee) said he would oppose the nominations of […]

Fake ‘Labor Commissioner’ Gets 16 Months in Prison

An Alhambra man who posed as a California deputy labor commissioner in an alleged attempt to extort money from his former employer, Temple City-based Jayco Acceptance Corp., has been sentenced to 16 months in prison after entering a plea of no contest to charges of obtaining funds through false pretenses. Representing himself to be the […]

Job Descriptions: 3 Common Mistakes–and a Tool for Avoiding Them

If anyone questions your layoff selections—and they will—employees’ attorneys are going to scrutinize the job descriptions on which you based your determinations. What will they find? A full set of up-to-date, accurate, and complete job descriptions, right? Well, maybe not a full set—and maybe not all accurate and complete and up to date, either. Here […]

Time to Bring Out the Sled Dogs!

by Stephen Acker and Leanne Fioravanti More exotic modes of transport may need to be explored as Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, struggles with relentless snow storms and a highly controversial bus strike. Unfortunately there is no end in sight as the OC Transpo transit strike enters its second month in mid-January. This transit strike demonstrates: […]

Employers Urged to Take Safety Precautions on Black Friday

The Thanksgiving turkey isn’t even in the oven, but retailers (and shoppers) are already looking ahead to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when stores traditionally promote once-a-year, enticing — some would say irresistible — prices to shoppers. But Black Friday can be more than a profitable day for retail employers. It also can be […]