Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Lauren E.M. Russell This has been a year of radical decisions from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), nearly all of them favoring employees. With the appointment of a new General Counsel, the Board is poised to continue its current trend of invalidating long-accepted employer practices. New General Counsel The NLRB recently announced that […]
Plan sponsors that offer company stock in their retirement plan should watch carefully the results of a recent appellate court reversal that will allow participants in .’s defined contribution retirement plan to pursue an ERISA class action against the bank. They claim it endangered their savings by including company stock in their retirement plan shortly […]
Organic grocer Sunflower Market has agreed to pay $125,310 in back overtime wages to 78 workers at its stores in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to resolve charges that the employer misapplied executive and administrative overtime exemptions. The DOL also fined Colorado-based Sunflower $10,670 […]
In every issue, we take one reader’s question and ask our other readers to weigh in. Here’s what you had to say about a recent question:
by Karen Sargeant The United States is not the only country being hit by increasing unemployment rates — Canada is being hit, too. Although not as high as unemployment figures in the US, Canadian figures put unemployment at 6.6%. So where is Canada being hit the most? The following statistics from the Labour Force Survey […]
Over the last few years, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued several rulings narrowing the definition of what constitutes a disability under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Now, the California Supreme Court has ruled that California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) affords workers broader protections than the ADA.
Last year, large health plans (those with receipts of at least $5 million) had to come into compliance with new electronic security rules mandated by HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The rules are a corollary to the HIPAA privacy requirements for individual protected health information (PHI) and specify a series of administrative, […]
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 […]
If this bill becomes law, there will be higher dollar limits for eligible services for which employees can claim the dependent care tax credit. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., introduced the Middle Class Dependent Care Fairness Act of 2012 (H.R. 5886) on June 1. Israel’s bill calls for: increasing the credit to $35,000 per year; increasing […]