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.
We recently reported on a new federal Ninth Circuit ruling that you can be liable if a client sexually harasses an employee and you don’t take adequate steps to remedy the problem. Now, for the first time, a California jury has weighed in on harassment by non-employees, and the case has a different twist. The […]
A new law—S.B. 486—that’s aimed at increasing worker and customer safety in wholesale or retail warehouse establishments requires that if such businesses store merchandise on shelves higher than 12 feet above the sales floor, they must secure it from falling. Security methods could include safety rails, netting, security cables, shrink-wrapping pallets or tying items together. […]
Contractors Labor Pool is a major supplier of construction trade labor to nonunion contractors in the western United States. CPL implemented a new hiring guideline, based on a company retention study, under which it refused to hire applicants whose most recent job was at a pay level that was more than 30% above starting […]
We previously reported on a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that extended to nonunion employees the right to bring a co-worker to a meeting that may have disciplinary consequences. Now a federal appeals court has upheld the NLRB ruling, expanding to nonunion employees a right that has been recognized for union workers since […]
The California Insurance Commissioner has ordered that the state’s average workers’ comp pure premium rate be increased 10.2% in 2002. The pure premium rate is a guideline that insurers use when pricing their workers’ comp policies, although the rate is not mandatory.
Gov. Davis has signed a new measure, A.B. 1015, that creates new labor law protections for job applicants’ outside activities and political interests and strengthens remedies employees already have. The new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2002, and applies to most public and private employees with a few exceptions. We’ll cover the key points.
Many employers that hired foreign workers on H-1B visas during boom times are now struggling with how to lay them off in light of the economic downturn. And other employers are contemplating hiring H-1B visa holders who are now looking for work. We’ll detail your special obligations when hiring or terminating workers on H-1B visas.
Several years ago, the federal appeals court covering California sent a shock wave throughout the employer community when it ruled that software giant Microsoft Corp. had to pay certain retroactive employee benefits to temporary workers improperly classified as independent contractors. Because misclassification problems are common, the decision signaled that many employers could be on the […]
The California Industrial Welfare Commission recently took long-awaited action regarding a controversial opinion letter about salary docking for exempt employees. Here’s what happened.
Sexual harassment case law is evolving rapidly. In the first lawsuit of its kind in California, a Court of Appeal recently decided that a male employee’s staring at a female co-worker could amount to gender-based harassment. We’ll tell you how the case came about.