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Are You Ready to Train for a Nontraditional Business Model?

Sometimes it’s necessary to strip away all the preconceived notions about how to succeed in an industry, reshuffle roles, and take an untraditional approach to change things for the better. That’s even true—maybe especially true—in industries as steeped in tradition as winemaking. Typically, there are three groups involved in winemaking: The winemakers, The distributors, and […]

Union Organizing: Employer To Pay $1.3 Million For Firing Workers Before Election; Do You Know Your Rights?

Have your employees become discontent, asked for higher pay and better benefits or grumbled about recent management changes? If so, beware-it’s these workers who are most likely to become interested in forming a union. And if this happens, it’s critical that you know exactly what the law allows you to do in response to their […]

Will the abolishment of mandatory retirement result in longer notice periods?

By Ralph N. Nero and Nicole R. Singh You’re about to terminate an employee’s employment without cause. He’s been with you for 30 years, earns $100,000, has a middle management position, and is 69 years old. He could retire with a full pension. Surely you don’t have to provide him with a severance package? Absolutely, […]

X-Men playing catch-up on genetics–the real-life wave of the present

Remember when the study of genetic information was deemed to be the purview of those in the medical field or reserved for films and television shows that were classified as “futuristic science fiction”? Not anymore. Today we live in a world where everyone is fully aware that their own genetic code and family history could […]

PBGC Wants Thoughts about Missing Participants

The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may start providing new services to help plan sponsors spend less time identifying, locating and corresponding with missing plan participants. The agency is seeking public comment until Aug. 20 on several aspects of administering a missing participants program when terminating individual account plans, according to a June 21 Federal […]

Quebec closing may have ramifications in Saskatchewan – Wal-Mart revisited

by Karen Sargeant As many of you will know from earlier blog entries, Wal-Mart’s entry into Canada has been rife with union complaints. Beginning in the 1990s when employees at a Windsor, Ontario, store were automatically certified under relatively new certification provisions, employees and unions have filed numerous unfair labor practice complaints. The most recent […]

Taxing Health Benefits Could Cause Unintended Consequences

When President Barack Obama’s aides recently showed new openness toward taxing health care benefits to help cover the uninsured, they suggested an area of possible compromise on health reform. The President had opposed taxing the benefits as a candidate. More recently, the mantra of aides has been that although the tax isn’t Obama’s idea, all […]