Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
With the economic slowdown, if you’re tempted to ask employees to take time off to cut costs and avoid layoffs, you probably won’t have legal problems with nonexempt, nonunion employees, but use caution when it comes to exempt workers. Under the wage and hour laws, you can’t dock the pay of exempt employees, because they […]
I understand that there has been a clarification of the rules for sexual harassment training for supervisors. What’s new on that front? — Catherine, HR Specialist in Watsonville
A Midwestern farm company that fired a manager on the day he was due to return from FMLA leave has withstood the ex-employee’s allegations of FMLA retaliation and interference in a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling affirming a district court decision. The case is Winterhalter v. Dykhuis Farms, Inc., No. 11-1743 (July 23, […]
The Ninth Circuit has thrown out a $15 million class-action settlement in a case accusing Boeing Co. of workplace bias. A group of employees had challenged the settlement, arguing that it was inequitable because some victims would have received up to 16 times more money than others, and that it didn’t do enough to prevent […]
Earlier this week, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was introduced into both the U.S. House and Senate. Both supporters and opponents of the bill anticipate that the proposed legislation will spark fierce battles over the next few months. Employer advocacy groups have already launched aggressive lobbying efforts to defeat the bill. On the other […]
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that when public employees make statements as part of their official duties, those statements are not protected free speech. The case involved Richard Ceballos, a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County who claimed his supervisors retaliated against him for sending a memo that said an affidavit […]
Data from late 2012 show women in the United States closing the gap in defined contribution plan balances and savings rates compared with their male counterparts, but gaps remain in women’s retirement funding strategies that plan sponsors can help address. Although female plan participants long have been known to save less than men for retirement, […]
One of the most feared phrases in the HR lexicon is “class action” or how to turn a one-employee small suit into a many-employee gigantic suit. Today we will look at survey data on class actions and at the best tool for preventing them. In yesterday’s Advisor we looked at lawsuit cost data from law […]
The California Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that could save employers and their insurers hundreds of millions of dollars in workers’ compensation benefits.