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Reasonable Accommodations: Court Says Restructuring Job May Not Be Enough; 3 Steps To Take To Prevent Getting Sued

One of your employees has a bad back and needs their duties to be modified to allow them to continue to do their job. You make some changes, but the person’s performance deteriorates. As a new California Court of Appeal case makes clear, it’s important to stay proactive by closely monitoring the situation and, if […]

Monitoring Employees’ E-messages — Impact of Recent U.S. Ruling for Canada

By Derek Knoechel and Lorene Novakowski On June 17, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in City of Ontario v. Quon. This was its first decision regarding the monitoring of electronic communications in the workplace by employers. What impact, if any, will the Quon decision have on Canadian law regarding employer […]

Go Undercover to Find Out What’s Really Happening in HR

In yesterday’s Advisor, we introduced the Undercover HR Boss. Today, more of what we think you’ll find if you go undercover, plus an introduction to the extraordinary one-stop website, HR.BLR.com. ‘Punch out and then finish up, OK?’ Wage/hour management seems easy but it often is not. As one expert says, “No company is 100 percent […]

Do Your Application Forms Include Recommended Statements and Authorizations?

In yesterday’s Advisor, we shared some of attorney Stephen R. Woods’ rules for avoiding hiring lawsuits. Today we bring you more tips, and an introduction to a new audio conference about the mundane—but critical—challenge of HR recordkeeping. Woods, a shareholder at the Greenville, South Carolina office of law firm Ogletree Deakins, delivered his remarks at […]

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity Protection Considered

By Stephen J. Stine The categories of persons entitled to legal protection under federal antidiscrimination law have remained the same for almost 20 years. The last major expansion of federal antidiscrimination protection occurred in 1990, when Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act to protect individuals with an actual or perceived disability or a history […]

Woolsey Wants Higher Fines on Employers That Misclassify Workers

Companies that wrongly pay workers as independent contractors, rather than employees, strip workers of benefits and protections and put responsible employers at a competitive disadvantage, according to Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., who this week proposed increasing penalties on employers found to have misclassified workers. Woolsey’s bill, The Misclassification Prevention Act, (HR 3178) is the most […]

Feds Will Audit—Shouldn’t You Do It First?

Yesterday’s Advisor covered Kurt Ronn’s tips for identifying potential discrimination in process. Today we’ll see his tips for evaluating execution and take a look at an audit program you can use to find such problems before the feds do. Even the best process, if poorly executed, will yield questionable results, says Ronn, president and founder […]

Target-date Funds’ Popularity Heightens Transparency’s Importance

Nearly every defined contribution plan sponsor now offers target-date funds in its participant investment menu, as these funds, often named for the year a participant expects to retire, eliminate the need for employees to construct their own investment portfolio. A recently released white paper about TDFs examines plan fiduciaries’ uncertainly regarding what TDFs should contain […]

Is Your Photocopier a Security Risk?

Your new copying machine may be keeping copies of records that have been scanned into the copier’s hard drive. You can’t access those records directly, but someone could remove the drive and copy your confidential records.