Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
If I discover an employee on a long and obviously non-business-related phone call, can I interrupt and tell the employee to hang up? Our policy does not explicitly prohibit personal calls, but is there some way to discourage them? — Anonymous
As part of its ongoing ERISA enforcement, the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration recently investigated Walnut, Calif.-based Avacon Corporation’s 401(k) ERISA compliance. As a result of the investigation, the PWBA filed acomplaint, charging that four Avacon plan officials and trustees had failed to forward employee contributions to the plan in a timely fashion. During the […]
The largest jury award ever for a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit must be reduced to meet a statutory cap, the commission noted May 10 in final court filings. A court will have the final say over whether the award will be reduced, however. A jury on May 2 awarded $240 million to 32 […]
Last week, President Barack Obama signed legislation into law that extends the original federal COBRA subsidy created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The legislation extends: the total allowable time an individual could receive the COBRA subsidy by six months (from nine to 15 months); and the subsidy to individuals who […]
I’m up against an ethical brick wall here. I recently had an excellent candidate for one of our sales positions who was visibly pregnant. The hiring manager gave her a brief interview, then told me to reject her. He said, “Don’t send me any more pregnant women; they just get started and then they’re out […]
A “snapshot” survey conducted in October found the start of disclosure of fees from retirement plan service providers spurred little change in the behavior of either plan participants or sponsors. A total of 176 defined contribution plan sponsors responded to the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s survey, launched a few weeks after sponsors began disclosing […]
On April 1, 2009, the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission (ERC) adopted a draft of the City of Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave Ordinance Administrative Rules. These rules establish the standards and procedures the ERC will use for both the implementation and the enforcement of the ordinance by the ERC should the current legal challenge to the […]
By Dinita L. James In the case of Collins v. Brewer, a federal judge from Alaska, deciding a case from Arizona, barred the state’s attempt to do away with benefits for same-sex domestic partners of state employees. Earlier this year, there was an argument on the case before a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. […]
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), which enforces federal anti-bias and affirmative action laws affecting federal contractors, has issued new rules for finding discrimination in federal contractors’ pay systems, as well as guidelines for contractors to conduct self-audits. The rules went into effect on the same day the OFCCP published them, June 16, […]
The Employer Resource Institute, publisher of the California Employer Advisor, has just won two more editorial awards, bringing the total to eight. The APEX “awards for publishing excellence” from Communication Concepts are in the categories of feature series writing (our two-part blogging series) and new web and intranet sites (California Employer Advisor Online). CEA Online […]