Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Salary discussions in the workplace can lead employees to question why they don’t earn as much as their co-workers. This is especially a concern when bonus talk takes place. To avoid these issues, many employers attempt to limit conversations among co-workers about pay. But such restrictions can leave you at risk of a lawsuit, as […]
When properly drafted, arbitration agreements can help to efficiently and quickly resolve workplace disputes. But as a new case points out, if your agreements fall short of what courts require, you may end up in an expensive legal battle over whether the agreement is enforceable—and find that it isn’t.
Neil Bergt was president and chairman of the board of directors for the airline MarkAir. He participated in the company-sponsored profit-sharing plan and an employee stock ownership plan. The company then created an ERISA retirement plan that allowed employees who were pilots or former pilots to participate.
If two employees get into a scuffle at work and one is hurt, you might assume that the injured employee’s only recourse against you is to file a workers’ compensation claim. But a San Diego jury’s staggering verdict demonstrates that if you don’t respond appropriately to an altercation, you could find yourself on the losing […]
Whether employers like it or not, most employees use their office computers for a lot more than work—they send e-mail to friends, shop in online stores and personalize their computer screens with customized wallpaper and screen savers. It’s largely up to an employer to decide how much freedom to give employees in these areas. But […]
Last year, Gov. Davis signed new privacy legislation, S.B. 168, that prohibits California businesses from printing Social Security numbers on ID cards or badges and from requiring people to use a Social Security number to log onto a website without a password. To help businesses implement the new law, which took effect July 1, 2002, […]
The National Labor Relations Board has overturned one of its prior rulings that gave unions some protection from challenge when a nonunionized employer acquires a unionized company. Under the previous rule, unions could bargain with the new, nonunion employer free from challenge for a reasonable length of time after the takeover. Now, the NLRB has […]
Gov. Gray Davis has announced the consolidation of several state departments into the new Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The agency contains the Department of Industrial Relations, the Employment Development Department, the Workforce Investment Board and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. “Working within existing resources, the new agency will result in improved access to employment […]
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration has issued a fact sheet to help employees preserve their health care coverage after layoffs or a reduction in hours. It outlines the options available to employees, such as COBRA continuation coverage or special enrollment in another group plan.
Journeyman painter Thelma Walker filed a sexual harassment and defamation lawsuit against the San Francisco housing authority and her former job site foreman. Over the next six months, the housing authority was smacked with court fines for repeatedly not responding to Walker’s discovery requests. Walker and the housing authority then tentatively agreed to a settlement […]