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Retirement Plans: New Rule Regarding Stock Diversification Notice Penalties

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has published a final rule clarifying the penalty that may be imposed on a plan administrator for failing to provide a written notice to participants and beneficiaries of their rights to diversify the portions of plan accounts that are invested in the employer’s publicly traded […]

California Laws Clamp Down on Wage and Hour Violators; Misclassifiers Could Lose Business Licenses

Two new California state laws, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown Oct. 9, raise the stakes for companies that violate the state’s wage and hour laws. Assembly Bill No. 459, among the latest move by feds and the states to crack down on independent contractor abuse, prohibits willful misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The law […]

May Is Healthy Vision Month—Screen Time May Be ‘Ageing’ Workers’ Eyes

May is Healthy Vision Month, a good time to remind your employees of your vision-related benefits and eye protection and safety measures, as well as precautions they can take to maintain their own eye health. Unfortunately, says the Vision Council, the modern day workspace is far from “eye-gonomic,” and day-long use of computers, combined with personal use […]

When world events hit the workplace

by Mark Schickman Statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show that charges of discrimination based on religion and national origin are the fastest growing categories in the past decade. Of course, that coincides with the aftermath of 9/11 and, rational or not, American anger and suspicions over Middle Eastern Arab communities. This shift in […]

Terminating Employees: Neutral Investigation Helps Defeat Discrimination Charges

Richard King was a valued United Parcel Service (UPS) supervisor in Redding for more than 30 years, until he was fired for falsifying an employee’s timecard. King contended in a lawsuit that the real reason for his termination was disability bias. But now a California appeals court has dismissed King’s suit—and the case is a […]

California Court OKs New Way to Bring Bias Suits

A California appeals court has ruled that an employee who claimed he was the victim of workplace bias and violence can sue his employer under California Civil Code sections 51.7 (the Ralph Civil Rights Act) and 52.1 (Bane Civil Rights Act), which provide individual protections against discriminatory violence and denial of civil rights by means […]

Ringing in 2014: It’s time to take a look at your policies and employee handbook

by Jeanine Poole The turn of the year is often a good time to review company policies. We’re weighing in with some favorite perennial professional resolutions and perhaps a few new suggestions that might make for a happy 2014.  What’s in a policy? In the employment world, issues involving e-mail, the Internet, and social media […]