Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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 […]
By Dominique Launay No doubt, workplace harassment remains a hot topic in Canada. Another Canadian province, Manitoba, has recently announced that it will join Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and the federal sector in requiring employers to provide protection from workplace harassment. Quebec employers have been required to deal with protections from psychological harassment since 2004. Their […]
Will it soon be a “best practice” to let employees choose how much vacation, personal leave, and sick leave to take? If it is, there’s a place where you’ll find out about it. In our last issue, we talked about Best Buy’s ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) program, which allows employees to decide where and […]
By Kate McGovern Tornone, Editor A federal district court has determined that a jury should decide whether a restaurant “willfully” violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when it declined to research the law’s requirements and ignored a warning that its compensations policies were not in compliance.
If two employees get into a scuffle at work and one is hurt, you might assume that the injured employee’s only recourse against you is to file a workers’ compensation claim. But a San Diego jury’s staggering verdict demonstrates that if you don’t respond appropriately to an altercation, you could find yourself on the losing […]
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) recently issued a decision that reads like a “what not to do” in response to employee complaints. When one employee complained to her manager about sexual harassment and assault by a coworker, the company looked into the matter but failed to protect her. In fact, the […]
If you want to attract a broad base of workers with talent, you must be more proactive in your recruiting efforts, says employment lawyer and diversity consultant Natalie Holder-Winfield, author of Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation. Holder-Winfield, president and chief strategic officer of Quest Diversity Initiatives, offers these […]
Over the last several years, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a string of decisions limiting the rights of state employees to sue their state employers for violating federal employment laws. Now a new high court decision continues the trend, ruling that state employees can’t recover damages for disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities […]
The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. Red Fox James, a Blackfeet Indian, rode horseback from state to state getting endorsements from 24 state governments to have a day to honor American Indians. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating November 1990 as “National […]
Fifteen years ago, country singer Toby Keith had a number one hit with his song “I Wanna Talk About Me.” The chorus of the song goes like this: