Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Employers who provide on-site meals to certain workers have been given a break by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns casinos in Nevada, offered workers free meals in an on-site cafeteria because it required them for security reasons to remain on the premises for their entire shift. But when […]
Regardless of whether your workplace has a formal diversity policy, it’s often hard to determine how and when race can be used as a criterion for hiring decisions. Two major new U.S. Supreme Court decisions offer some guidance. Although the cases deal with university admissions rather than workplace hiring, the court set out standards for […]
Non-federal governmental plans may omit language describing how participants can seek remedies under ERISA in notices to be given when the plan makes an adverse decision. Notices of adverse benefit determinations are required as part of health reform’s claims appeal and external review rules. Such plans need not include the language because ERISA remedies are […]
Tyson Foods has agreed to change its religious accommodation policies to settle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges that the Arkansas poultry processor discriminated against a worker who watched Sunday church services on television. Tyson fired Afton Bolen from his job as a fryer operator for refusing to come in on Sundays, despite its policy of […]
We’ve talked a lot about the importance of employee satisfaction in recruitment and retention efforts. Turnover and hiring are expensive, and companies can’t afford to keep losing their staff over low levels of satisfaction. However, there is a strong argument in favor of promoting employee satisfaction on the flip side as well.
An employer may require its workers to participate in a wellness program in order to receive health insurance benefits, a federal district court has ruled, dismissing a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Granting summary judgment for the employer, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin said it disagreed […]
Yesterday’s Advisor offered tips for controlling surfing on company time; today we’ve got a list of key issues to consider when you write your Internet policy. Here, from BLR’s popular SmartPolicies, are particular topics to consider for your policy on Internet usage: Security. Are all files downloaded from the Internet scanned for viruses? Are hard […]
When Joshua Josephs applied for a service tech position with Pacific Bell Telephone Co., he checked “no” to the job application question, “Have you ever been convicted of, or are you awaiting trial for, a felony or misdemeanor?” Josephs was hired for the position, which required him to install and repair phones unsupervised in homes, […]
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 […]
By Karen Sargeant In the last several months, we have posted several blog entries detailing how employers can reduce employment costs and/or increase workforce flexibility in these tough economic times. We have talked about furloughs, work-sharing programs, changing employment contracts, adjusting the size of the workforce and reducing employees’ hours of work. But all of […]