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Pay Raises in ’09: Revised Lower?

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR CEO Bob Brady would like to know whether employers are backing off of pay raises planned for next year. Please take our very brief survey and see the results next week. Economic uncertainty Until quite recently, employers were saying that pay raises would be inching upwards. Now, […]

Employees, Public Criticism, and the Media

by Jean-François Cloutier Your employee makes critical comments to the press about your company. Is he a legitimate whistleblower or has he violated his duty of loyalty to his employer? In Chopra et al. v. Treasury Board (Department of Health), an adjudicator at the Public Service Labour Relations Board recently considered just that. He considered […]

New Survey Demystifies Factors Causing the ‘Gender Pay Gap’

A new report by Glassdoor, Demystifying the Gender Pay Gap, helps to confirm the existence of wage disparities by sex and why they continue. It is based on a unique data set of more than 534,000 salary reports by employees, which includes pay data down to specific job title and company name.

Rutgers lesson: Don’t double dribble your way through key decisions

by Michael P. Maslanka With the Final Four on Saturday and the NCAA national championship game on Monday night, basketball has been much in the news. And not far behind those stories is the unfolding saga of the Rutgers basketball program. Two articles by  The  New York Times writers Kate Zernike and Steve Eder, “Rutgers Tries […]

Military needs more than a few good men

by Mark Schickman Let’s turn the clock back 50 years to the days before Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sex discrimination was a constant, and sexual harassment was so prevalent that it wasn’t yet a term of art. The notion that a woman had the right to a workplace free from […]

Get Moving on Your Employee Volunteer Program

Yesterday we discussed the benefits of a robust employee volunteer program. As stated, companies should think beyond annual holiday drives and develop programs that encourage staff to get into the community on a regular basis during work hours. Benefits are plentiful—to the company, to the employees themselves, and to those these efforts serve.

Employee Leasing: Battle Over Workers’ Comp Coverage Ensues When Worker Injured on Job; How to Protect Yourself

Many employers lease rather than hire employees to reduce the costs of managing employee payroll and benefits. Leasing firms usually carry workers’ comp insurance on the leased workers, which can save you money and headaches. But as one employer recently found, if you don’t administer your leasing arrangement carefully, you could face expensive legal problems […]

Sexual Orientation Discrimination and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

by Gary Fealk There has been a push in recent years to provide homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual individuals with protection against discrimination, including discrimination in the workplace. There is even proposed federal legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), on the horizon that may pass in the next session of Congress. Certain states have enacted discrimination […]

Global Healthcare Benefit Costs Trending Higher

The cost of employee healthcare benefits around the globe is trending higher, driven largely by the higher cost of hospital and inpatient services, medical technology, and the overuse of services, according to a survey of medical insurers by Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking, and solutions company. The Willis Towers Watson Global Medical Trends […]