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5 Business Books to Read in 2011

Here is the Wall Street Journal’s Kyle Stock’s list of 5 books to read in 2011 to help improve your work life. 1. Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World by Stuart Diamond. Practitioner, professor, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Diamond uses his 40 years of experience as an […]

DOL Fails to Help Employers Out of FMLA Conundrum

By the BLR Editors Just My E-pinion At long last, a response has come from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on its call for public comments on the FMLA. Too bad DOL is a day late and about 10 dollars short. First came the hope … that, after requesting public comments, the U.S. Department […]

Inconsistent Wage/Hour Laws Lead to Confusing Enforcement, Study Says

According to a recent study, uneven enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act — lax in some places and more stringent in others — leaves employers confused about the extent of their liability for wage and hour violations. The study, released by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, calls for more enforcement consistency to […]

Stimulus COBRA Subsidy: New Notices Every Employer Must Use

The new stimulus package, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), provides COBRA subsidies for certain employees terminated or laid off between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. The subsidy reduces an employee’s COBRA premium by 65% for up to nine months, provided that the employee meets the eligibility requirements. Last […]

Arizona Medical Marijuana Vote Too Close to Call

By Dinita L. James As of Thursday morning, the outcome of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act remains too close to call. The no votes on Proposition 203 outnumbered the yes votes at one point late this morning by a slim 6,700-vote margin, with three precinct results incomplete and an unknown number of early voting ballots […]

Asian Harassment Based on African American Racial Slurs

The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) recently issued a probable-cause finding against an employer and its owner. The owner admittedly used the “n” word in the presence of an Asian employee who has a biracial child and a black fiance. Facts In February 2008, Shi-Juan Lin started working as a bookkeeper and secretary […]

Trucking Business Avoids WARN Act Liability as a “Faltering Company” 

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN Act”) was enacted in 1988 to help protect employees, their families, and communities from the sudden, and potentially severe, impact of large-scale company closures and layoffs.    The primary mechanism for such employee protections under the WARN Act is the requirement that employers provide prior notice of plant closures or mass layoffs to give employees an opportunity to make other arrangements for gainful […]

Massachusetts passes broad new pay equity law

A new Massachusetts pay equity law going into effect on July 1, 2018, contains provisions that are much broader than current federal law and even prohibits employers from screening applicants based on their salary or wage history. Although the law doesn’t take effect for nearly two years, employers are advised to start planning immediately in […]