Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
When your organization is hit with a suit, you face a double-headed monster: substantial liability risks and open-ended litigation costs, says attorney Stewart Weltman. But the monster can be tamed. Society may behave according to the 10 Commandments. But if your organization gets sued, attorney Stewart M. Weltman, founder of the Weltman Law Firm in […]
How can an employer make the decision whether or not to offer healthcare benefits versus paying the penalty for not doing so? This conundrum is referred to as “pay or play” when discussing the new healthcare reform law. However, the decision of whether or not to provide coverage is not simple and requires much more […]
by Judith E. Kramer The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has extended the comment period for the proposed rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. Comments will be accepted through October 14. The proposal, published on November 8, 2013, would amend the agency’s record-keeping regulation to add requirements for the electronic […]
Sexual orientation discrimination—there’s no federal law forbidding it, yet "any lawyer with a pulse" can get a claim to go forward in federal court, says attorney Michael Cohen. If sexual orientation—and gender identity and gender expression—are not on the list of protected characteristics (race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age), how do such […]
If you (or just you and a couple of assistants) have to do it all in human resources at your company, you need all the help you can get. We’ve got some help just for you. The hit Broadway musical, “A Chorus Line” kicks off with a song called “One.” It celebrates a young dancer, […]
by Nancy Williams Certain NCAA rules designed to ensure “amateur status” of student athletes may violate federal antitrust laws, according to a decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling came in a case filed by Ed O’Bannon, a former All-American basketball player at UCLA. O’Bannon discovered that his name, likeness, and […]
Web-based providers of salary information, such as Compensation.BLR.com, allow job seekers or workers lobbying for a raise to tell you “what I’m worth” even before you make an offer. Here’s what to do to counter the trend. It used to be that, when buying a car, the dealers held all the cards. They alone knew […]
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on an individual’s religion. Unless, that is, your employer is a religious organization. When three former employees sued World Vision, the question was whether the Christian charity qualified for the exemption. In a recent decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which […]
Employers have expand job protections for military members and their families who need time off, to comply with regulations finalized by the U.S. Department of Labor Feb. 5. Major provisions, which implement changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act, include: Defining a covered veteran, consistent with statutory limitations, as limited to veterans discharged or […]
Yesterday’s Advisor covered the legal pitfalls of layoffs. Today Attorney Bennett Pine gives you his take on release agreements, and we introduce an extraordinary collection of checklists that helps you through the whole range of HR challenges. Consider requiring employees to sign releases in exchange for receiving severance pay, Pine recommends. Although such agreements must […]