Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Yesterday, we looked at some of the risks involved in employing temporary employees. Today, we’ll explain a few more, and we’ll tell you how you can attend a webinar next week to clear up the confusion—absolutely free.
Cellular phone-toting employees can be quite a liability, as we saw in the last issue of the Advisor. Today we’ll look at some cell phone safety policy points and share some good news—your policies are already written! Here, from BLR’s SmartPolicies on CD, are crucial points to consider in creating your cell phone policy: Training. […]
Yesterday’s Advisor presented tips from a distinguished panel of employment law experts on the “perfect storm” that’s brewing for HR in 2016. Today we present more, including NLRB’s aggressive march into HR territory. Attorney John Husband, with Holland & Hart LLP, moderated the panel at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium held recently in Las Vegas. […]
What do you do with jerks at work, especially when they claim protection as whistleblowers or as members of protected classes? There are steps you can take, says attorney Jathan Janove. In fact, you can discipline and ultimately, if necessary, terminate your jerks, says Janove, a partner in the Portland, Oregon, office of Ater Wynne […]
In May 2025, the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published guidance saying that it would stop enforcing a Biden-era rule—one that had rescinded a rule created during the first Trump administration—on the factors distinguishing independent contractors from employees. Although the Biden-era rule remains “on the books” for now while the DOL considers replacing […]
The U.S. Supreme Court on May 18 unanimously vacated a federal appellate court ruling that found that employee retirement plan participants’ claims about fees applied to their plan were time-barred, sending a clear message that plan fiduciaries have an ongoing duty to monitor investments, their expenses and other related claims within that duty’s statute of […]
Flexible spending accounts (FSAs) are a common feature of employee benefit plans. But why would an employer offer an FSA plan to its employees? Well, it’s extra money in your workers’ pockets that you and your employees probably don’t want to leave lying on the IRS’ table. Karen Kirkpatrick, senior compliance adviser for Infinisource, explained […]
Most employment laws include provisions protecting employees from vindictive managers who would otherwise punish them for exercising their rights. The Family and Medical Leave Act is no exception. Late last year, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division released Fact Sheet # 77B explaining the FMLA’s anti-retaliatory provisions. Here are some highlights: Prohibitions An […]
By Kyla Stott-Jess The Alberta Court of Appeal has recently added to the ongoing debate in Canada over who is or isn’t an employer in the human rights context. In its recent decision in 375850 Alberta Ltd. v. Beverly Noel and the Director of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the dismissal of the complainant’s appeal […]
by Brian R. Garrison By now, most everyone has heard about organized labor’s biggest priority, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — an unprecedented attempt by labor unions to organize non-union employers. But while the EFCA has garnered the lion’s share of media attention, a recent less publicized change may have a similar impact on […]