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Who’s Offering What for Holidays and PTO? Survey Results Reveal All

Our recent survey on paid time off reveals that more and more organizations are going the PTO route for offering time off. For holidays, over 90% of respondents are offering New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving, and 81% will offer the Monday after Christmas. Fifty-eight percent of responding companies have […]

News Notes: On-The-Job Violence A Big Concern For California Employers

One in five human resource executives reported a violent workplace episode, according to a new survey of Southern California employers by Thomas Staffing Services in Irvine. Respondents expressed the most concern over fist fights, guns, and obscene or threatening phone calls. Nearly all believed preventive measures such as pre-employment screening, tighter security and employee hotlines […]

OSHA to Publish Five New Final Rules in 2011

On Wednesday, January 5, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hosted a live Q&A Web chat to answer questions about its Fall 2010 Regulatory Agenda. The assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, started the session by listing some of OSHA’s 2010 achievements. He noted that the agency: published final rules/interim final […]

An Invitation to Share Your E-Pinion With a Few (About 135,000, Actually) of Your Colleagues

How many times have you had strong feelings about something in HR that you wanted to let the profession know about? Well, here’s your chance to do it. If you’re a steady reader of this column, you know it’s usually written by BLR’s founder and publisher Bob Brady. Bob’s “e-pinions” have crisscrossed the wide world […]

Economy and talent drought may force widespread diversity

Surprise, surprise: Leaders of international executive search firm Epsen Fuller have noticed severe deficits in diversity at the executive level. And they know of what they speak: The firm is the U.S. member of IMD International Search and Consulting, the 14th largest executive search firm network in the world. The firm’s own research reveals that […]

Don’t Get Tripped Up by ‘Reasonableness’ and ‘Alternatives’ Requirements for Wellness Programs

Can’t join your workplace wellness activities due to a health condition? Sure you can, using the government’s accessibility rules for wellness programs. Here’s a primer.  In yesterday’s Advisor, we looked at “benign discrimination” and “multiple plan” rules for wellness programs. Today, we look at the “reasonableness” test and the “alternative standard” requirement, and introduce a […]

The Truth About Juries: Court in the Real World

Are juries worried about whether the facts meet the second prong of a prima facie case? asks attorney Edward M. Richters, No, they get to the jury room, and someone says, “Boy, did that guy get hosed.” Or, maybe, “She had it coming to her.” Bottom line, says Richters, “How would I want to be […]

Solis, Trumka Push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Today the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) hosted a live webcast interview with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. During the webcast, both parties made the case for the necessity of comprehensive immigration reform, decrying individual state movements such as the controversial immigration law in Arizona as a means for racial profiling […]

A holiday gift from the NLRB to employees

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 […]

Job-Share Solution Solves Succession Situation

It’s been a family business for generations (and generations). The son has been waiting to run the organization—forever—but the CEO has been unwilling to give up any power until now. Could a job-share solution solve a sticky wicket of a succession situation? Could be, according to reports from the U.K., where Charles, Prince of Wales, […]