Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
LITIGATION VALUE: Over $700,000 It would be pretty safe to say that any time a company’s regional manager asks a female employee to act out a lesbian love scene during its anti-harassment training you have problems. Expensive problems. Not only does the company face liability for Michael’s actions in contributing to the hostile working environment […]
Litigation Value: $500,000 If I were Kevin, I would start daydreaming about how to spend the windfall I will receive from the litigation lottery. Off the cuff, I’d guess that he has a great claim for damages after being forced to publicly disclose that he has anal fissures – especially if Dunder Mifflin later takes […]
LITIGATION VALUE: $800,000 If I represented Kelly, I think my opening statement would say something like this: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are here today because Kelly Kapoor’s right to work in an environment free of discrimination was violated when her boss, Michael Scott, repeatedly made negative comments about her heritage culminating in an […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Want to improve communication at your workplace? BLR’s CEO tells you how we do it in just 3 minutes a week. As regular readers of this column know, internal communication–up, down, and across–is always at the top of the agenda at BLR (and, I suspect, in many of […]
BLR’s annual survey of benefits shows a slowing in healthcare cost increases, rising deductibles, and a quarter of employers paying their workers serving in the military. The results of BLR’s annual survey of benefits paid by U.S. companies are in. Here’s what they show. And here’s how to get the report sent to you every […]
Can California employers impose different dress and grooming requirements on male and female employees? The answer is, it depends.
In what is being hailed as one of the largest public entity individual employment settlements ever in California, the City of Emeryville (near Oakland) has agreed to pay $2.3 million, plus $1.3 million in attorney’s fees, to a city employee who claimed racial discrimination and retaliation.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released a new fact sheet explaining how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to job applicants and employees in the healthcare industry–the largest industry in the American economy. The new publication is the latest in a series of fact sheets on specific disabilities and industries. It is available […]
On March 15, U.S. Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Healthy Families Act, legislation that would guarantee seven paid sick days per year to employees working at least 30 hours a week at companies with 15 or more workers. Under the bill, the sick days could be used for the […]
As companies compete for talent, housing assistance and free medications head a list of alternatives to traditional benefits. Looking for an employee benefit that will dazzle potential recruits and silence the siren song of competitors trying to steal your stars? Forget about bonuses, or a company car or credit card. The hot ticket in this […]