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News Notes: Aggressive Response To Discrimination Lawsuit Backfires

A jury has handed down a $3.8 million verdict in favor of a hotel manager who complained of race discrimination, thanks to the employer’s overly aggressive reply to the worker’s lawsuit. Rabah Khatib sued his employer, Tower Corp., claiming that he was harassed and discriminated against because he is Arab-American. He also charged that his […]

Should We Train Managers As We Do Shamu the Whale?

BLR founder Bob Brady’s look at manager training may be tongue-in-cheek, but there’s a really important principle behind it. There was a wonderful article by author Amy Sutherland in The New York Times recently. She wrote about how animal training technique helped her train her husband. The article could help us train managers and supervisors, […]

Contractors for Storm Clean-up Pose Misclassification Risks

Hurricane Sandy’s path of destruction has left many homeowners, municipalities and businesses in need of reconstruction and repairs — and when such weather-related disasters require massive reconstruction efforts, many landscapers and builders hire subcontractors to help. Increased joint employer liability, particularly in those industries that frequently use subcontractors, often goes hand-in-hand with worker misclassification. Employers […]

Hiring: Do We Really Need an At-Will Statement in All Employee Documents?

We are in the process of reworking all of our selection and hiring paperwork. I’m trying to insist on strong at-will language throughout, from application to offer letter to handbook. But our management is trying to improve retention and wants to brand the company as “a great place to work.” They think the at-will language […]

Final HITECH Omnibus Rules Tighten Breach Notification

The HITECH Act is now here in full. The whole litany of tighter privacy and security requirements is in the long-awaited, long-delayed “omnibus” rules finalized Jan. 17 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and most of these will have to be met by this Sept. 23. The omnibus rules also include changes […]

Tip Two: Don’t Forget the Form

–Use a form that asks the certifying doctor for complete information on the claimed condition, including schedule of dates and times for treatments, and minimum amount of time leave will be needed. The DOL provides a form for this purpose. Go to Tip Three

DOL Replaces Q&A to Clarify Brokerage Windows Policy

By Jane Meacham The U.S. Department of Labor on July 30 quickly revised its field assistance bulletin on retirement plan fee disclosures to clarify a contested question’s impact on so-called brokerage windows and self-directed accounts, which allow plan participants to select investments beyond those designated by an employer-sponsored plan. In the clarification, a new question […]

Our Readers Talk Back: ‘No Jerks’ Proposal Brings Out ‘C.A.V.E. People’ and ‘Loyal Oppositionists’

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Bob Brady’s recent column on whether to have a “No jerks!” rule banning antagonistic empoyees brought intriguing responses. One reader expects “a little jerkiness” in everyone, and another invokes the “C.A.V.E.” rule. Here’s a sampling: “C.A.V.E. People and Loyal Oppositionists” “We’ve coined the phrase ‘C.A.V.E. people’ [standing for] […]

News Notes: Undocumented Worker Gets Green Light To Sue Employer For Retaliation

The day after Charanjit Jutla agreed to pay $70,000 to settle a claim for unpaid wages by his nephew, Macan Singh, Jutla turned Singh over to immigration authorities. As a result, Singh-an undocumented worker-wound up in jail and is awaiting INS deportation proceedings. Now a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that Singh can […]