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.
A Southern California jury has ordered an employer to pay $2,331,319 to two waitresses who said they were sexually harassed by other employees and then retaliated against after they complained. Rebecca Barklage and Malissa McCard worked at Birraporetti’s Restaurant in Costa Mesa. They claimed that the kitchen staff and several busboys repeatedly harassed them. One […]
Some employers routinely protest claims for unemployment benefits without much consideration of the facts of each case. But one company recently discovered that an automatic challenge can boomerang into a costly lawsuit. We’ll look at what happened and offer some practical legal tips on how to approach unemployment insurance claims.
If an employee makes unjustified complaints about wages and hours, you may be tempted to brand the person as a troublemaker. You might even take disciplinary action if the griping continues. But a new National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling cautions that even a one-employee protest can be a protected activity under federal labor law-landing […]
The federal appeals court covering California ruled several years ago that software giant Microsoft Corp. had to pay certain retroactive employee benefits to workers improperly classified as independent contractors. Now, the same court has made clear that its earlier ruling will require Microsoft to provide millions of dollars in stock-purchase rights not only to contractors, […]
A California Court of Appeal has ruled that employment decisions made by religious institutions about ministerial employees, like clergy members, are not covered by state anti-discrimination laws. The case was brought by a female chaplain at Chapman University. The chaplain claimed that her hours were cut back in retaliation for reporting incidents of alleged sexual […]
The federal government is developing a new employer notice dealing with court-ordered medical support obligations for children of divorced or separated parents. The “National Medical Support Notice” will notify you of your obligation to withhold pay when necessary to enroll a noncustodial parent’s child in an employer-provided healthcare plan. Although new regulations were to be […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor have announced plans to share information and resources in enforcing anti-discrimination laws. Among other things, staff in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division will be trained to detect violations of equal pay laws and share their findings with the EEOC. The agencies tout the […]
You’ve probably put a lot of effort into implementing a well-defined and nondiscriminatory application process for hiring new employees. But many employers don’t always apply the same careful planning when it comes to promotion decisions-an oversight that can be costly. In one recent case, an African-American employee successfully sued her employer for damages after being […]
Late last year, the California Supreme Court ruled that only employers-not individual managers and supervisors-can be forced to pay damages for workplace discrimination claims arising out of routine employment decisions. But the ruling left the door open for lawsuits against individual managers for harassment or retaliation. Now, a new decision illustrates just how easily a […]
You fire an employee for breaking a company rule. This common event may not seem risky, but a recent verdict shows that how you handle a termination can often get you in more trouble than the firing itself. In fact, Wal-Mart is now facing a whopping $20 million verdict partly because of how it discharged […]