Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.
The answer is a very qualified yes, and points up why it’s far better to stop sexual harassment before it occurs. As law school professors everywhere would outline it, “Supervisor A engages in sexual harassment of Employee B, who works for him. Is there any way Company C, which employs them both, would not be […]
A jury in Alameda County has awarded $61 million to two former FedEx Ground drivers who charged they were harassed by a manager for over two years. The drivers, Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa—both of Lebanese descent—claimed that manager Stacy Shoun at the company’s Oakland terminal subjected them to a barrage of racial slurs, including […]
A business-funded think tank has surveyed employers and concluded they “face a significant financial burden” when it comes to complying with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Based on its survey, the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policy Foundation (EPF) estimates that FMLA compliance cost employers $21 billion in 2004. The direct costs included net labor […]
Many employers are worrying overtime about overtime as the Fair Labor Standards Act is used more aggressively, and against some of the biggest players in business. Competitors in the retail business have been reluctant to take on Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retail chain. No such problem for the U.S. Dept. of Labor. The department’s bird […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has deferred ruling on a closely watched lawsuit that poses the question of whether an employer can be sued under the federal racketeering and organized crime law for recruiting illegal immigrants with the purpose of suppressing salaries for legal workers.
In 2003, the California Legislature amended the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to state that employers are potentially liable when third party nonemployees—such as customers or clients—sexually harass their employees. Prior to the amendment, the language of the FEHA seemed to impose liability on an employer only when the harassment was committed by the […]
Employment law attorneys note that ADA will not force you to make “reasonable accommodations” to the point that they hamper job performance When the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, some employers went into a tailspin. ADA mandated “reasonable accommodations” for the disabled. That invoked the specter of all manner of expensive […]
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that, as of the end of May 2006, it already received enough H-1B visa petitions to meet and exceed the H-1B visa cap of 64,300 for the 2007 fiscal year (which begins on October 1, 2006). The final date to submit a petition for consideration […]
Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has announced he will recommend a 16.4 percent decrease in the workers’ compensation pure premium rate for policies starting on or after July 1, 2006. This recommendation is the latest in a string of recommended rate reductions since July 2003, when workers’ comp reforms went into effect. The cumulative recommended reductions […]
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that when public employees make statements as part of their official duties, those statements are not protected free speech. The case involved Richard Ceballos, a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County who claimed his supervisors retaliated against him for sending a memo that said an affidavit […]