Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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.
On April 17, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to adopt rewritten and clarified workplace ergonomics regulations aimed at reducing repetitive motion injuries. The regulations probably won’t take effect before early July-assuming threatened lawsuits from employer and labor groups don’t cause further delays. We’ll have a full report in an upcoming issue. […]
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 […]
—Send the certificate back if the doctor doesn‘t provide enough information. Whether it’s incomplete, insufficient, or illegible, send it back. Go to Tip Four
Two new surveys reveal that while workers report spending an average of 36 minutes per day—or about three hours a week—attending to personal tasks during the workday, executives believe the actual number is much higher. The surveys were conducted by staffing firm OfficeTeam.
California law forbids employers from taking any part of an employee’s tips. But a trial court has decided this rule didn’t prevent The Castaway restaurant in Burbank from withholding a portion of waiters’ tips that were paid with credit cards to help defray charge card transaction fees the restaurant had to pay. The state Labor […]
By Gilda Villaran It’s common for companies to fill executive positions in Canada and the United States with one executive. That person is based in the United States and commutes to Canada on a regular basis to provide services to the Canadian affiliate. Since such executives are providing services to a Canadian company, they can’t […]
In July 2002, a law took effect restricting the display of consumer Social Security numbers (SSNs) by California businesses. Although the law wasn’t targeted at the workplace, it had implications for employers’ use and display of worker SSNs. On Jan. 1, 2004, a follow-up law will further limit SSN use in mailings. Here’s what you […]
Yesterday’s Advisor warned of potential legal hassles for wellness programs under HIPAA and NLRA; today, threats from GINA and the states, plus an introduction to the popular wellness guide that will help your program achieve best practice ROIs. Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) GINA (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect […]
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has reached an agreement with Alcoa Inc. to provide an additional $150 million in pension contributions to the company’s two largest pension plans, which cover more than 83,000 people.