Author: Holly Jones, Senior Legal Editor

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 […]

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 […]

Don’t Get Tangled Up in Duct Tape: Lessons for Employers

By Ida Martin and Brian Smeenk The City of Mississauga was recently embarrassed by a video of two of its employees duct-taped together. They were squirming around on a table, taped by their hands, torsos, and feet. This was apparently a routine employee hazing. It was leaked to the media by an employee who had […]

Toronto’s G20 Summit — Lessons for Employers about High-Security

By Patrick Gannon The G20 Summit of world leaders will be in Toronto June 26-27. The summit is expected to draw considerable attention and thousands of protesters from around the world. Like the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, there will be intensive security measures and lots of potential disruptions. As the summit will be held at […]

Hot List: New York Times Bestselling Paperback Business Books

The following is a list of the bestselling paperback business books as ranked by the New York Times on June 14. 1. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The evolving business of football, viewed through the rise of the left tackle Michael Oher. 2. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can […]

12 Wonderful Lessons from John Wooden

Legendary basketball coach John Wooden died on June 4 at the age of 99. During his coaching career his teams won more than 80 percent of their games. At UCLA, his teams won an astonishing 10 NCAA national championships during his final 12 years of coaching, including seven in a row. Wooden was a talented […]

NLRB Puts Out Feelers on Remote Electronic Voting

It appears the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has started to lay the groundwork for off-site Internet elections for employees to determine whether they wish to be represented by a union. The first sign of this development was a Request for Information (RFI) published by the NLRB on June 9, 2010. In the RFI, the […]

Aged Like a Fine Wisconsin Parmesan

Litigation Value: More fodder for a potential lawsuit by Oscar Martinez; at least $10,000-15,000 to help Dunder Mifflin muddle through the competing Darryl-Dwight complaints — and the only reason it is that low is that, at the end of the day, neither is likely to want to escalate their dispute further. Tonight we were treated […]

Smoking Pot and Feeding Grizzly Bears — Any Volunteers?

Normally in HR Hero Line, we focus on employment laws and issues that affect most employers. But when a state-specific workers’ comp case comes along that involves (1) a worker smoking pot before (2) his job feeding grizzly bears for (3) a company that says its workers were volunteers, (not employees), we think it’s worth […]

You Don’t Have to Be Blind to See

In his blog The Oswald Letter, M. Lee Smith Publishers’ President Dan Oswald shares a story from YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE BLIND TO SEE by Jim Stovall about a woman determined to find her kidnapped baby. Ever the businessman, Oswald draws a connection between this mother who triumphs over adverse conditions that paralyze the […]