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 IRS has decreased the mileage rate commonly used to reimburse employees for business use of a car from 36.5 cents to 36 cents per mile. The new rate—which applies to miles driven beginning January 1, 2003—was prompted primarily by the decrease in gasoline prices.
Governor Davis has signed many new laws of interest to employers, ranging from creating a paid family leave program to implementing new layoff notice requirements; from new prohibitions against age discrimination to important changes to consumer report laws; from new restrictions on absence control policies to additional guidelines on responding to employee requests to view […]
Einstein Bagels, a national chain of bagel stores–which includes Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagels–has agreed to pay over $495,000 in back overtime to settle claims that it misclassified 424 assistant managers in 27 states, including California. The settlement grew out of an investigation of Einstein locations by the U.S. Department of Labor. In […]
On October 7, 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court reconvened for a new session. The court’s docket this term includes a case involving whether physician-shareholders can be counted as employees for purposes of determining employer coverage under the Americans with Disabilities Act and a case regarding whether state employers can be sued for violations of the […]
In two recent opinions, a California appeals court has addressed the issue of when a student can be considered the school’s employee.
A federal court has approved a $47,000,000 settlement entered into between the EEOC and Rent-A-Center to resolve two major class action lawsuits charging the rent-to-own company with sex discrimination. The lawsuits claimed that women were denied promotions, demoted, and sexually harassed, and that some women were fired or forced out after the company was acquired […]
If your company uses Ceridian Retirement Plan Services for 401(k) plan recordkeeping, it may be a good idea to have employees carefully check their account records. That’s because Ceridian clients have allegedly reported a spate of recordkeeping problems since earlier this year, when Ceridian began consolidating its San Rafael and Richmond, Virginia, offices into a […]
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Home Depot for sex discrimination. The agency charges that the home-improvement retailer repeatedly rejected a female applicant for various positions at a new Home Depot store in Rialto, near Los Angeles, and hired less-qualified men for the jobs. In response to the lawsuit, Home Depot has denied […]
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has just voted to amend its recommendation for an increase in pure premium rates for 2003. Back in July, the California insurance commissioner approved the WCIRB’s recommendation for an 11.9% increase in the rates. But based on a review of new data reported by insurers reflecting a rise in […]
Willie Greene sued his employer Dillingham Construction N.A. Inc. for racial harassment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. A jury awarded Greene $490,000 in emotional distress damages, and the trial court ordered Dillingham Construction to pay an additional $1,025,794 in attorneys’ fees. The company appealed the fee award, arguing that it shouldn’t have […]