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Bulletin Item: California Supreme Court to Consider Whether Attractiveness Standards May Be Discriminatory

The question of whether a male executive’s standard of attractiveness, which led to the firing of a female employee, violated the California Fair Employment and Housing Act will be answered by the state’s high court. The California Supreme Court has agreed to review Yanowitz v. L’Oreal USA Inc., which we covered in the May 2003 […]

Prop 8 Upheld by California Supreme Court

On Tuesday, the California Supreme Court upheld the November amendment to the state constitution—Prop 8—that prohibits same-sex marriage. The court did, however, rule that the 18,000+ same-sex marriages already performed in California will remain legally valid.

Sharing The Wealth

The California Supreme Court recently ruled that employers may lawfully use net-profit-based incentive plans to compensate their employees.1 Employers may base profit-based bonus or incentive plans on the traditional measure of company profits, regardless of whether the employee is exempt. Before the ruling, an employer would have had to add workers’ comp and other business-related […]

Study Lists Abilities HR Must Have for Success

A study of senior executives lists the skills and qualities human resources leaders must gain to reach full strategic partner status in their businesses, starting with “credible activism.” There’s good news and bad news in the world of human resources. The bad news is that according to a study of more than 468 companies worldwide […]

News Notes: Federal Discrimation Laws Don’t Cover Sexual Orientation

Medina Rene, a butler at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, filed a lawsuit claiming that because of his sexual orientation he endured daily harassment by his male co-workers and supervisor. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his case, reaffirming a 1979 ruling that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation […]

Governor Vetoes Employer-Unfriendly Employment Bills

This month, the real news is about what employment-related bills Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t sign. The most notable bill struck down by the Governor is S.B. 242, which would have made it unlawful for employers to discriminate against an employee based on the employee’s primary language, or to ban employees from speaking any language in […]

Should All New Hires Have a STEM Education or Work Background?

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education is becoming vital to workplaces powered by automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced mobile and technology platforms. But should all new hires come pre-equipped with such STEM education or work experiences?