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Why Wait for the EEOC? Expert Clarifies ADAAA Requirements

Nearly two years after Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced recently that employers should not expect to see new regulations providing a more detailed explanation of the law’s requirements anytime soon. To understand the reasons for the delay and how it may affect employers, we spoke with […]

Readers Say, ‘No Amnesty!’ (Mostly)

By Stephen D. Bruce, PHR Editor, HR Daily Advisor Just My E-pinion Our recent column featuring a question about amnesty for illegal immigrants generated responses from many readers, most of whom voted (or railed) against amnesty. [Go here to read the original column.] The original questioner/writer had low-level positions to fill. No one with a […]

Supreme Court Holds Two-Member NLRB Lacked Quorum, Authority

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a surprising 5-4 decision holding that the previously short-staffed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) acted without authority over the two years it had only two members. As a result, more than 500 opinions decided by that Board are now invalid and will need to be readdressed. In addition […]

Supreme Court Rules Public Employee’s Text Messages Not Private

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public employer did not violate an employee’s constitutional privacy rights by searching his personal (and often sexually explicit) text messages that were sent and received on his employer-issued pager. The Backstory The City of Ontario, California, issued pagers that could send and receive text messages to Ontario […]

Employees Must Be Paid for Donning, Doffing Required Protective Gear

Continuing the recently established practice of issuing broadly applicable “Administrator Interpretations” in lieu of wage and hour opinion letters, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink has released the second Administrator Interpretation of 2010. The interpretation, issued June 16, clarifies the definition of “clothes” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), addressing some […]

Are Your Performance Appraisals Setting You Up for a Lawsuit?

Yesterday’s Advisor offered 10 Rules for Appraisals that will make them stand up in court. (Go here for the 10 Rules.) Today, we feature a checklist to help you review your appraisal system, and we talk about the real first step of any appraisal, a well-written job description. An effective, legally sound performance appraisal is: […]

Government Issues Health Care Reform Regulations on ‘Grandfathered’ Plans

On June 14, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury issued new regulations addressing grandfathered plans under health care reform and how such plans can keep their grandfathered status. Although the new health care reform legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability […]

Wage/Hour Litigation = Easy Money for Lawyers

Wage-and-hour rules have been around for nearly three-quarters of a century—ever since FDR’s New Deal—so it’s hard to picture them triggering the next wave of employment litigation, but attorney Marc Jacuzzi, Esq. thinks otherwise.

Defense Failed Because of Performance Appraisal?

In court, an inadequate or inaccurate performance evaluation can be used against you with devastating results. Many’s the company that has fired for poor performance and then found out—too late—that its appraisal documents didn’t support the defense. We often don’t think of appraisals as legal challenges, but they often figure prominently in lawsuits. Juries tend […]