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Job Descriptions Gone Wrong!

Improper job descriptions can confuse your organization, stifle creativity, and land you in a lawsuit. Here’s what to watch out for. Job descriptions are among the most prosaic tools in the HR toolbox. They’re a basic of every HR program, the blueprint of who does what, when and where, and how it all fits together […]

Will You Pay a Penalty Under PPACA?

In yesterday’s Advisor, we offered Michael P. Aitken’s suggestions for employers reeling from the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Today, more of Aitken’s tips, and an introduction to an extraordinary policy development program. Aitken’s advice came during the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) recent annual Conference and Exposition in […]

Ubiquitous Affirmative Action Policy Is Unenforceable, Meaningless

Ubiquitous Affirmative Action Policy Is Unenforceable, Meaninglessby Kurt Ronn, president and founder, HRworks If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it fall, does it make a sound? If affirmative action regulations are so complex, so broad that they impact nearly everyone, so constantly changing that no one can keep […]

Paterno Responses Range from ‘Despicable’ to ‘Very Well Written’

Last week’s epinion by BLR CEO Dan Oswald concerning the Penn State and Joe Paterno garnered perhaps the widest variety of responses—pro and con—of anything we’ve written about. By Stephen D. Bruce, PHR Editor, HR Daily Advisor There was, however, one resounding commonality. Overwhelmingly, readers showed distain for the manner of Paterno’s termination—over the phone […]

H-1B visa season is upon us

by Elaine Young It’s that time of year again, when employers that want to hire recent college graduates and other professionals begin to file H-1B visa petitions. The first possible start date for most H-1B employees is the first day of the federal fiscal year, October 1. Because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) accepts […]

Public Employees: New Case Makes It Easier for Public Workers to File Lawsuits for Bias-Related Claims

Last year, the California Supreme Court made it easier for public employees to sue over job bias by ruling that they can bypass their employers’ internal grievance process and file a discrimination complaint directly with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). Now a California appeal court has clarified an issue left open […]

Compensation: Can We Insist on Salary Confidentiality?

As a result of an upcoming merger, we are going to have a lot of situations in which there is a disparity in salaries. We have a plan for addressing that over a period of three years, but in the meantime, I would like to institute a policy that prohibits employees from discussing their salaries […]

Employers Should Prepare for SBC Requirements

Employers and plan administrators have a new reporting requirement to fulfill now that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is confirmed to be the law of the land. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in National Federation of Independent Business, et.al. v. Sebelius, No. 11-393 (June 28, 2012) eliminates any doubt regarding whether employers need to comply with […]

Record $240M ADA Award Likely to Be Reduced

The largest jury award ever for a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit must be reduced to meet a statutory cap, the commission noted May 10 in final court filings. A court will have the final say over whether the award will be reduced, however. A jury on May 2 awarded $240 million to 32 […]

Administration Proposes Overtime Expansion, Solicits Employer Buy-in

President Obama announced a proposed rule to “modernize” and expand overtime protections for workers on March 13. The administration signaled that it would like to expand overtime protections through a U.S. Department of Labor rule change that would raise the salary threshold defining which workers are exempt from overtime and potentially evaluate some of the […]