Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
All our employees sign an at-will acknowledgment when they are hired. Doesn’t that mean I can fire an employee whenever I want, for any reason or no reason? I’m being told that I have to have documentation and justification. If they’re at-will employees, why can’t I just fire them? —Carl B., San Jose
Are you doing all you can to prevent workplace discrimination, harassment, and retaliation? To help you determine where you could be doing a better job—and prevent costly claims—download California Employer Advisor’s Discrimination Prevention Checklist, which you can use to do a 32-point mental audit of your organization’s bias prevention program.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced last week that discrimination charge filings in 2007 shot up 9 percent over 2006, and pregnancy bias filings reached an all-time high. The EEOC reports that it received 82,792 complaints from private-sector workers nationwide last year, which was the highest volume since 2002 and the largest annual […]
We have people out on leave. Some employees take intermittent leave and others are out for chunks of time. Our managers complain to me about how disruptive these absences are. I’m worried that the managers are going to retaliate against the workers. What should we be doing to prevent this? —Heather S., Sacramento
The best way to fight age discrimination lawsuits isn’t before a jury, but with preventive practices and proactive strategies that keep you out of court in the first place. The California Employer Advisor’s Special Report, “The Complete Guide to Understanding and Preventing Age Bias in the Workplace,” gives you information on what constitutes age discrimination […]
Suppose an employee files a discrimination lawsuit against you, claiming she was let go in a reduction in force because of her age. To help prove her case, she wants to paint a picture of a corporate culture of age bias. She plans to do this by introducing testimony from former co-workers who also claim […]
On Monday the California Supreme Court ruled, in a divided 4-3 decision, that individuals can’t be held personally liable for retaliation under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the state’s antibias law.
Do we have to be a part of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, or can we go on our own for workers’ comp insurance?