Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
One of the factors often cited as contributing to racial and gender disparities in the workplace is discrimination in the hiring process. This could come in the form of explicit discrimination against women or people of color by a hiring manager.
By Steve Jones, JD, Jack Nelson Jones & Bryant, P.A The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals—which covers Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota—recently reversed a district court’s decision that an employee wasn’t exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because her primary duties weren’t related to […]
Travel time pay can be a tricky thing to master, and the issue is fraught with risk since travel-related issues in particular pose a significant risk for wage and hour claims. One question that comes up a lot is whether or not time spent traveling to work is considered compensable work time. The FLSA established […]
The first of what is expected to be a series of interest rate increases by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Dec. 16 should start to help defined benefit retirement plans recover from years of underfunding, Moody’s Investor Service said in a report Dec. 14. Pension funding levels for about 670 rated U.S. non-financial corporate pension […]
By Suzanne Porteous and Wendy Wang The bad news is that one of your employees has just commenced a long-term disability (LTD) leave. You may well have concerns like: (1) Will the employee ever return to work? (2) If so, when? (3) What accommodations would be needed to allow a return to work? (4) What […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady My recent column “Software Police: Best Way to Curb Webslackers?” generated interesting opinions. Most agreed that webslacking is an insidious problem, but two said to hold off on that monitoring—it’s no good for morale. Here’s a sampling of readers’ reactions: It is akin to an addiction “The problem […]
Maryland is expected to soon become the 19th state to legalize medical marijuana. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) told the Associated Press that he “probably” would sign the measure passed by the Maryland Legislature earlier this month. The bill would allow academic medical research centers to prescribe marijuana to critically sick patients under limited circumstances. […]
A new U.S. Department of Transportation rule reduces the number of hours a truck driver can work within a week. The new final rule, announced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration a few days before Christmas, reflects new research in driver fatigue to make sure truck drivers can get the rest they need to […]
By Kate McNeill McCarthy Tetrault We all know that once you hire an employee, you have certain legal obligations to that employee. But what about before you even hire someone? In Canada, job applicants are entitled to certain human rights and common law protections that employers must be aware of in their hiring practices. In […]
Earlier this week, we reported that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed amended rules that would streamline the union election process, making it easier for employees to unionize. The regulations, which appeared in Wednesday’s Federal Register, firmly divide the pro- and antiunion factions, being lauded by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka as “a commonsense […]