NLRB Settles Facebook Case
Late last year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) came after a Connecticut employer, claiming that it had illegally fired an employee over comments she made about her supervisor on Facebook.
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Workers’ Compensation: Commissioner Recommends 9.3 Percent Rate Drop
California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has recommended a 9.5 percent cut for workers’ compensation insurance pure premium rates for policies incepting on or after Jan. 1, 2007. The recommendation far exceeds the 6.3 percent cut recently recommended by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB).
Supreme Court Rejects DOL View; Rx Sales Reps are “Outside Sales” Employees
In a blow to a U.S. Department of Labor position, a divided Supreme Court ruled today that pharmaceutical sales representatives qualify for the “outside sales” exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In an opinion delivered by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court found that under the most reasonable interpretation of DOL regulations, PSRs qualified as […]
Youth Labor Violations Cost Pizza Vendor A Bundle
You’re the Expert: FMLA Abuse
We have some people who may be abusing our Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) policies. We approved their going out on leave, but now we suspect they don’t qualify. What do you do to identify and stop FMLA abuse?
News Notes: Independent Contractor’s Employee Can Sue If You Provide Unsafe Equipment
According to a recent California Court of Appeal decision involving Wal-Mart, you can be sued by an independent contractor’s employee if you supply equipment that’s involved in an accident injuring the worker. Wal-Mart had hired Musi-Cal to install a sound system in the retailer’s Chino, Calif., store. The work involved placing speakers and running wires […]
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News Notes: Delayed Harassment Claim Thrown Out
In one of the first sexual harassment decisions in California since the U.S. Supreme Court issued new guidelines this summer (see CEA August 1998), an employee who waited almost two years before complaining about being harassed has had her case dismissed. The federal court found the employer had exercised reasonable care to prevent and remedy […]
U.S. Supreme Court to Address Privacy of Text Messages
The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would hear arguments in a case involving sexually explicit text messages sent by employees using their employer-provided pagers. The issue for the court is whether the employer violated its employees’ privacy rights by reading the messages. The case involved several police officers with the Ontario, California, […]
Recession Hard on Black, Hispanic Job Hunters
According to a report released in November by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), African American and Hispanic workers were hit particularly hard during the first year of the current recession. The report notes that while “the overall labor market conditions deteriorated markedly in 2008 following the onset of the recession in December 2007 . […]