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News Notes: Court Says Restaurant Can Deduct Credit Card Service Fees From Tips

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 […]

News Notes: EEOC Suspends Rule On Retiree Medicare Bridge Coverage

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has rescinded a policy under which the agency viewed employer-sponsored health plans that were reduced or eliminated on the basis of age or Medicare eligibility as violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The agency acted after receiving input from employer and labor groups suggesting that the rule discouraged […]

Potential deal in works to fill NLRB seats

by Tammy Binford With the clock ticking on the term of the only confirmed member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), reports are circulating that President Barack Obama will send two new nominees to the Senate and abandon his two previous appointees, who face opposition because of their disputed recess appointment status. On July […]

Exempt Employees: Labor Commissioner Won’t Follow Federal Docking Rules, Issues Strict New California Standard

Under federal wage and hour law, employees must be paid a predetermined salary to qualify as exempt from overtime. And there are strict guidelines on when salary docking can jeopardize exempt status. When overhauling state wage and hour laws in 2000 with the passage of A.B. 60, California for the first time adopted similar salary […]

Good News on Maximum Length of Stay for Intra-company Transferees

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 […]

LGBT final rule for contractors published

The final rule implementing President Barack Obama’s Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against employees and applicants based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been published in the December 9 Federal Register. The rule implements Executive Order 13672, which Obama signed on July 21. The order directed the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) […]

Senate Votes to Extend COBRA Subsidy

Update Dec. 21, 2009: President signs bill including COBRA subsidy extension In an unusual Saturday morning session on Dec. 19, the U.S. Senate voted 88-10 to pass legislation that would extend the original federal COBRA subsidy created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which President Barack Obama signed into law in […]

Health and Safety: Employee Obesity Can Create Risks in the Workplace; Low-Cost Approaches to Tip the Scales in Your Favor

No doubt you’ve heard that Americans are getting heavier. The Surgeon General reports that in 1999, 61 percent of adults in the United States were overweight, twice as many as in 1980. And as of 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly a quarter of all Californians were obese. These numbers—and the […]