Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
We reported in April on a federal court decision from Kentucky involving IBM which held that under federal law, if you’re seriously considering changes to a retirement benefit plan, you must tell your employees. Now, in a pair of new cases, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has reached the same conclusion, explaining that […]
The U.S. Department of Labor on July 22 announced temporary relief for retirement plan administrators from some participant fee disclosure deadlines approaching in August. In Field Assistance Bulletin 2013-02, DOL said it would allow a one-time “reset” of the requirement that administrators “at least annually” provide to participants detailed comparative charts of plan investment options. […]
In a new case, an employer argued that even when there’s no evidence that a former employee misappropriated trade secrets, you should be able to block the person from working for a competitor merely by demonstrating that the employee’s new job duties would inevitably cause them to rely on your trade secrets. We’ll tell you […]
The changing attitudes and expectations of American workers regarding retirement have been measured in Sun Life Financial Inc.’s first “Unretirement Index.” Unretirement is defined as working at least 20 hours per week after reaching the age when one is eligible to receive full social security benefits. The Unretirement Index measures consumer opinions toward five factors […]
Topic: E-pinions By Stephen D. Bruce, PHR Editor, HR Daily Advisor Just My E-pinion Last year, EEOC logged 25,000 charge filings for ADA violations—and that’s all before the new regs the EEOC issued today; these new regs are expected to make it much easier for employees to claim protected status. Here are some excerpts from […]
The other day, it was pointed out to me that we Americans like to be comfortable. It may seem like I’m stating the obvious here since no one likes to be uncomfortable. And maybe I am, but hear me out on this one. Do you know what the number one selling chair is in America? […]
Noncompete agreements, once exclusively for highly paid execs, are now being used with even blue collar workers. Are they useful? Are they legal? How do you keep them that way? Here’s the information you need. It seemed a simple enough transaction. The sports broadcasting network, ESPN, had decided to change security service vendors. One company […]
Many employers are now making the unhappy discovery that their finance and operations people made aggressive exempt-status and other wage and hour-related determinations that are coming back to haunt their organizations in the form of big wage and hour lawsuits and payouts. Attorney Kurt A. Franklin of the San Francisco office of Hanson Bridgett, LLP, […]
BLR’s 2012 Pay Budget Survey results suggest another marginal improvement in economic conditions from one year ago. The average planned merit increase for 2012 is 2.07%, according to the survey results, while the average actual merit increase for 2011 was 1.87%. In last year’s 2011 Pay Budget Survey, employers reported that their average planned merit […]
Spring has sprung. The grass is green. The flowers are blooming. The trees are in full blossom. It’s that time of year again. Time for spring cleaning. Out with the old and in with the new. At least that’s my wife’s way of thinking.