Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
I just read an article that said it’s important to give raises to good new employees soon after hiring or you’ll lose them. Sure, that may be a good idea in theory, but if I do that, the new people will make more than the workers who have been around for much longer. And that’s […]
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that would further extend the federal COBRA subsidy created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213), which passed the Senate by a 62-36 vote, would extend the subsidy to individuals who were involuntarily terminated […]
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced a $1.1 million settlement of a lawsuit charging that four Muslim employees of Stockton Steel, a subsidiary of Herrick Corp. based in Pleasanton, were harassed based on their religion and ethnicity. The Pakistani-American workers charged they were ridiculed at work during their daily prayers, chided about their […]
The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that UC Davis will have to face a trial on a charge by Ronald Y. Chuang, a microbiologist and AIDS researcher, that he was discriminated against because of his race and national origin. Chuang claims that the institution failed to give him a tenured position as […]
Responding to a surge of discrimination complaints from employees of Middle-Eastern descent following the events of Sept. 11, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released two new fact sheets to answer questions about the employment of Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and Sikhs. One fact sheet is geared toward employers, the other for employees. The […]
Remember, the “Where’s the beef?” commercials Wendy’s restaurants began running in 1984? The advertising slogan soon became a catch phrase anytime someone wanted to question the substance of an idea or product. It seems to me, with apologies to my middle school English teacher, “Where’s the jobs?” is an appropriate slogan for the current, so-called […]
Smoking by Public Employees Under existing law, neither employees nor members of the public may smoke inside a state-owned or state-occupied building, or a state-leased and state-occupied building, or within five feet of the main exit or entrance of these buildings, or in a state-owned passenger vehicle.
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 […]
Undercover testers-individuals who apply for jobs solely to scope out hiring bias-continue to cause trouble for some employers. The owner of five San Francisco McDonald’s franchises is the latest lawsuit target. Several African-American job seekers were allegedly told that no positions were available or were told to apply in a “ghetto” neighborhood. Others were flatly […]
Federal rules governing overtime, which went into effect just a few weeks ago, are facing another challenge: the U.S. House of Representatives has moved to block the Department of Labor from enforcing them. The central point at issue is the number of workers who will lose overtime eligibility. Opponents claim as many as 6 million […]