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Number of States Allowing Medical Marijuana Expected to Grow

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. […]

Danger: Casual Background Checks on Social Media

Special from the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, Las Vegas The biggest mistake I see managers making is failure to document, says attorney Molly DiBianca, member of the Employers Counsel Network (BLR/M. Lee Smith’s network of attorneys from all 50 states). And the number two mistake is casual background checks on social media. DiBianca’s remarks came at […]

National Employment Law Trends

Last year is ended on a high note, at least in terms of one economic indicator: the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent in December. Despite that good news, many states are still experiencing record unemployment; this rampant unemployment was the number one issue addressed by state legislatures this past year. Here is a […]

Privacy: Can We Read Employees’ E-mails?

  What right do employers have to access personal e-mail records or personal e-mail accounts that are on company-owned computers? — Robert, HR Manager in L.A.     Technology-related privacy concerns are on the rise for nearly every HR professional. We sought Trey Wichmann’s views on this question. In this situation, the employer’s rights depend […]

Distracted Driving–Are Employees Talking and Texting Behind the Wheel?

Special from Atlanta–SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition Yesterday’s Advisor featured the first five of attorney Joseph Beachboard’s 11 risks of e-data. Today, the rest of his risks, plus an introduction to the premier HR website, HR.BLR.com. [Go here for risks 1 to 5.] 6. Physical Use of Personal Devices Suits against employers involving cell phone-related […]

Retaliation Claims: Court Rules Employers May Now Be Sued When Co-Workers Retaliate; 3 Important Steps To Prevent Lawsuits

It may come as a surprise that employers can now be sued if co-workers harass an employee who has made a workplace complaint. A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision has broadened the liability of employers for retaliation to include not just supervisors’ acts, but also the hostile conduct of other employees. We’ll offer […]

Hot List: BusinessWeek’s Bestselling Business Books

BusinessWeek magazine ranks the 15 best selling hardcover and paperback business books in January 2009 and gives a short summary. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. As you’d expect with Gladwell, there are lots of surprises in his explanation of why some people succeed fantastically. Pluck and smarts get less play here […]

Clear offer of employment needed to argue mitigation

By Katherine Pollock Want to change a Canadian employee’s terms or conditions of employment? It’s not as easy as it once was. Depending on the nature of the change, it may amount to constructive dismissal. If it does amount to constructive dismissal, simply providing notice of the change may not be sufficient—as the Court of […]

Turnover Focus Brings Bottom Line improvement

To tame turnover, says consultant Karl Ahlrichs, SPHR. Focus on the employees you really want to keep. You’ll have a much better shot at improving the bottom line. And going one step further—if we can do a good job of managing turnover among top producers, we’ll improve other key metrics like retention of customers, says […]