Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Oops! One way or another these articles never got properly categorized.
One of the more perplexing issues employers have been facing as our country grapples with war and terrorism threats is employees’ fear of flying. Indicators of this troubling problem show up in scaled-back plans for work travel for the near future. In addition, recent concerns about the contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak is […]
Many employers have discovered that successful telework arrangements can provide high levels of flexibility and employee satisfaction. And, as a new fact sheet from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission points out, you may be required to consider telework as a reasonable accommodation for disabled employees. Modifying Telework Programs The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) […]
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has updated its enforcement guidance concerning reasonable accommodation and undue hardship under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The revisions stem from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is unreasonable for an employer to have to reassign a disabled employee if doing so would violate a seniority system, […]
Chris Schultz, a longtime maintenance worker at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Illinois, took 12 weeks of FMLA leave over the course of a year to care for his ill parents. His father had Alzheimer’s disease and his mother had heart problems and diabetes. During this time period, the hospital implemented a new evaluation […]
Gov. Davis has signed into law state layoff notice requirements similar to those in the federal WARN Act—but broader. We’ll explain what you need to know about the new state law, which we’ll call “Cal/WARN.” Federal WARN Coverage The existing federal WARN Act applies to employers with more than 100 workers. And notice under WARN […]
In response to the highly publicized corporate accounting scandals involving Enron, WorldCom and a host of other companies, President Bush recently signed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, creating tougher new rules for auditing and financial disclosures at publicly traded companies and for protecting shareholders’ interests. The new law also has some serious implications—including both civil […]
The U.S. Department of Labor has launched http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/, a new online resource to promote disability awareness. The site is a collaborative effort across multiple federal agencies and includes information on employment, health care and other topics. It contains a resource section for employers, with guidance on legal responsibilities regarding disabled employees and applicants and links to […]
According to a new report from the federal General Accounting Office, employer surveillance of employees’ Internet, e-mail or other computer activities doesn’t appear to have changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The study involved interviews with executives at 14 Fortune 100 companies. While all of the companies stored employee e-mail […]
Mix-ups with leave-related paperwork can bring on expensive headaches, as one employer recently discovered. Sam Duty, a mechanic and welder at Norton-Alcoa Proppants, injured his neck at work and took seven months of medical leave. But eventually a dispute erupted when it turned out that an error in the company’s FMLA paperwork gave Duty more […]
Gary Ross was offered a job as a lead systems administrator for RagingWire Telecommunications in Sacramento. In connection with taking a mandatory pre-employment drug test, Ross gave the company a copy of his medical prescription for marijuana, which he used to alleviate pain from an old back injury. Ross also told RagingWire that he wouldn’t […]