Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
First Union Corp. has agreed to pay a whopping $26 million to current and former employees to settle two lawsuits accusing the bank of forcing workers to invest their 401(k) retirement savings in poorly performing mutual funds. The employees charged that First Union included second-rate investment funds in its in-house 401(k) plan and then used […]
The benefits of using nonemployee workers such as independent contractors are obvious: you don’t have to provide a contractor with expensive employee benefits, and you retain greater flexibility to quickly alter your workforce as needs change. But if you make a mistake and incorrectly classify an employee as an independent contractor, the consequences can be […]
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), which enforces antidiscrimination and affirmative action requirements for federal contractors, has issued a final rule defining who qualifies as an “Internet Applicant” for purposes of employer recordkeeping. The OFCCP’s new rule is designed to clear the confusion surrounding how to determine who’s an applicant, in light of […]
A California Court of Appeal has thrown out a jury award against an employer accused of negligently allowing a teacher’s aide to repeatedly sexually assault an 11-year-old emotionally disturbed student. The court said the employee’s acts were personal and had no purpose connected to his employment. The court noted that for the employer to be […]
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court made its second pro-employer decision of the day in a case involving the standard of proof an employee must meet in retaliation claims. In University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, the question was whether an employee must prove that the only reason his employer retaliated […]
Several years ago, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mandatory arbitration agreements are unenforceable for discrimination claims brought under Title VII, the federal anti-bias law. But the court has now called this ruling into question. In a new case, the court found that Circuit City employee Monir Najd had to arbitrate […]
Among the bills that failed to win the governor’s approval were AB 1715, which would have prohibited employers from requiring employees to sign agreements to arbitrate Fair Employment and Housing Act claims as a condition of employment; AB 1093, which would have set a living wage for employees of state contractors; AB 1133, which would […]
We’re concerned about our supervisors’ and managers’ casual use of e-mail. They are saying things about employees that might come back to haunt us. When we talk to them, they say it all gets erased after a month anyway. What should we do?
We’re a small office—14 employees. How often do we have to do sexual harassment training?