Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released two new useful publications to address workplace health and safety risks. First, OSHA has a new guide to help international business travelers avoid health risks. You can download the guide on the OSHA website. Second, OSHA has prepared a Heat Stress Card, which contains valuable information for […]
The U.S. Supreme Court recently released a double feature for employers, publishing two decisions with significant workplace implications. Read on to learn about what these cases mean to you.
In 1998, Wells Fargo Bank merged with Northwest Bank. Under Wells Fargo’s sick leave policy before the merger, employees earned one sick day a month, and unused sick days could be carried to the next year. At the time, employees also earned a certain amount of paid vacation days a year, which could be carried […]
Not giving workers proper notice of their COBRA rights can have potentially expensive consequences for employers—including having to pay an employee’s uncovered medical bills, attorneys’ fees and penalties. But what happens if you do everything right—and yet the employee never receives the COBRA notice you sent out? A federal appeals court decision looks at this […]
Several years ago, the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board ruled that it’s illegal to terminate an injured worker’s health benefits unless you can show a legitimate business reason for doing so. But now the board has ruled that you can cut off health benefits for an employee out on workers’ comp leave so long as […]
Although it may seem obvious that you have to pay employees for all the hours they spend on their job duties, employers commonly violate this rule. In recent years, a string of employers—including Nordstrom, Taco Bell and meat processor Monfort Inc.—have been hit with lawsuits for not paying workers for “off-the-clock” time. And now a […]
Lunchroom gossip is common in most workplaces, and when it’s malicious, it can damage relationships and affect morale. But can it also create work-related injuries that employers are on the hook for? We’ll tell you why a California appeals court has ruled that one workplace gossip victim was not entitled to workers’ comp benefits—but why […]
Although you’re required to determine the legal status of all workers you hire, you can get hit with discrimination complaints and fines if you ask for excessive documentation or single out particular groups, such as immigrants. And a spate of employer prosecutions by the federal Department of Justice for violation of a little-known rule involving […]
Sacramento lawmakers are debating a host of proposals that would impact employers. We’ll look at some of the key legislation that’s on the table.
A federal court in San Francisco has ruled that a group of Chevron employees who retired just before the company announced a lucrative early retirement buyout package are entitled to recover the additional money they would have received had they delayed retirement until after the new incentives were unveiled. The court found that Chevron actively […]