Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The U.S. Supreme Court will take up several workplace-related cases this year. In one, the court will review a Ninth Circuit ruling regarding the type of evidence a terminated employee can use to prove job discrimination when an employer has both legitimate and illegal reasons for the discharge. Other cases on the court’s docket involve […]
The beginning of a new year is an excellent time to whip your safety and health program into shape. Here are three high-value initiatives to help you protect workers and avoid health and safety citations while cutting the expense and effort associated with illness and injury:
The new world of social networking and electronic communications opens all sorts of questions about etiquette, behavior, and life style. In "Available All the Time: Etiquette for the Social Networking Age," Wharton Professor Nancy Rothbard calls it a "double-edged sword." For example, she says, a Blackberry® can allow parents to attend their children’s soccer games […]
A recent case illustrates that sexual harassment claims can encompass actions other than traditional sexually oriented conduct. A 15-year-old student who was hired to answer the telephone at a nonprofit agency in the San Francisco area will receive $750,000 in a confidential settlement of his claim that a supervisor harassed him through aggressive “roughhousing” and […]
In late January, a former U.S. postal worker went on a shooting rampage at a mail processing plant in the town of Goleta near Santa Barbara. The ex-employee killed five, wounded another, and then turned the gun on herself. She reportedly had been placed on medical leave from her job in 2003 for psychological reasons–at […]
We’re trying to set up our policy for doing reference checks on final applicants. Can you help us with some basic guidelines? What if the former employers won’t talk? Job Descriptions in California: How To Tackle Tricky Drafting Hurdles Job descriptions can be your best friend or your worst enemy from both a practical and […]
Misclassifying an employee as exempt from overtime can cost employers potentially huge payouts of past overtime. Last year alone, the federal Department of Labor ordered employers to pay $134 million in back wages to misclassified employees. And that doesn’t count court judgments. Now a new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision may cause you to […]
According to an analysis by benefits consulting firm Watson Wyatt, the number of large employers that offer only defined contribution/401(k) plans—and not traditional pension plans—is way up. In 2005, 36 percent of Fortune 100 companies offered 401(k) plans only (not in combination with a traditional pension plan), up from 25 percent in 2004 and 17 […]
Employers that pay advances, allowances or reimbursements to employees for work-related entertainment expenses — including taxpayers who, in turn, get reimbursed by their clients for such expenses — have until Oct. 30 to comment on a proposed regulation IRS published Aug. 1. The proposed rule clarifies who — among the employer, its client and an […]
The U.S. Department of Labor on Feb. 5 finalized a long-awaited rule ensuring that families of eligible veterans have the same right to job-protected FMLA leave as families of military service members. The final rule also ensures the rights of military families to take leave to attend to financial matters and other types of day-to-day issues […]