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Want to Avoid Workplace Legal Troubles? Try ‘Preventive Law’

If you can avoid medical problems through preventive medicine, can you do the same for legal problems? There’s a whole community of lawyers who think so. These days, businesses are spending millions of dollars on wellness initiatives, in an effort to cut healthcare costs by stopping medical troubles before they happen. Another term for this […]

Feb. 27 Audio Conference to Detail Requirements – and Risks – of the New E-Storage Rules

Revised court procedures, now in effect, may forever change your way of storing e-mails and other e-messages. A special BLR audio-conference will tell you how you’re impacted. In January, BLR presented an audio conference on important changes in federal employment law for 2007. It was one of our best received events. As it turns out, […]

Now Hear This: ADA Covers “Invisible Disabilities,” Too

Even if you can’t see the results of a worker’s disability, you need to respect them, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Here are the rules to follow. Every time we look at the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it seems there are additional disabilities being covered. That’s not really happening, of course. The […]

Business School

LITIGATION VALUE: $30,000 (But it could have been much higher) “Business is always personal” is probably not the best motto for a manager. It could lead them to act impulsively. Like, say, moving an employee’s desk from the front of the office to an “annex” inhabited by the employee’s chatty, fashion-crazed, quasi (ex?) girlfriend as […]

Announcing a Special BLR Audio Conference: EEO-1 Revised: What You Have to Do Now

The annual EEO-1 report, due each September and covering 50 million workers, has finally been revised. Your first revised report will be due this fall, but you need to be collecting data in the new way right now. This article…plus a special BLR audio conference on Feb. 20… will help you do it right. It […]

FEHC Back to Work on A.B. 1825 Regulation

For over a year now, the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) has been drafting regulations to implement California’s sexual harassment training law, A.B. 1825. In December, the FEHC finally submitted the draft regulations to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for approval, and it looked like the regulations might take effect this month.

New Avian Flu Planning Guidance from OSHA

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has released comprehensive new guidance for employers on how to prepare for an avian flu outbreak. The new guidance, which OSHA developed in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, provides guidance for all types of workplaces, describes the differences between seasonal, avian, and pandemic […]

Wal-Mart Loses Class Action Certification Challenge in Huge Case

Last week, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that granted class-action status to a lawsuit—the largest civil rights suit in history—accusing Wal-Mart of sex discrimination in pay and promotions. The class is estimated to consist of up to 1.6 million current and former female employees of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart unsuccessfully […]

Congress Moving on Federal Minimum Wage Hike

We recently reported that the U.S. House of Representatives had approved a bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 over a period of 26 months. Now, the Senate has approved similar legislation, which, unlike the House measure, would provide tax breaks to small businesses to offset the economic impact of paying a higher […]