Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A recent case dramatically illustrates the financial incentive employees have to blow the whistle on their employer. A federal judge has awarded $24 million to Robert Merena, a former SmithKline Beecham billing analyst who charged that the company defrauded the government by billing for unauthorized and unnecessary lab tests under Medicare and other government programs. […]
Two white male Los Angeles police officers who claim they were transferred in retaliation for complaining about their African-American female supervisor, have lost a $175,000 verdict a jury had awarded them. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in overturning the verdict, acknowledged that racial and gender equity issues did arise in the officers’ complaints […]
Gigante USA Inc., a Los Angeles supermarket operator, went to court to get an injunction prohibiting union members from picketing in front of its stores. Gigante argued that the restriction was necessary to protect the safety of store employees and customers following an incident in which union members disrupted a new store’s opening day to […]
In welcome news for employers, the California Supreme Court has just issued its long-awaited decision on mandatory arbitration agreements. The court spelled out the minimum requirements for such agreements to be valid and clarified which provisions are illegal. We’ll have a full analysis of the impact of the ruling on California employers, along with a […]
The Industrial Welfare Commission has proposed boosting the state minimum wage to $6.75 an hour by 2002. At its August 17 meeting, the IWC approved a plan for a 50-cent raise on January 1, 2001, and another 50-cent jump on January 1, 2002. The IWC will hold a series of hearings in coming weeks to […]
Our story on a host of important bill spending in the legislature. As we go to press a couple of them have already been passed and are now on the governor’s desk for approval. They include the legislation requiring employersto notify employees if their e-mail will be monitored (A.B. 1822) and the measure that would […]
John Liotine, the mechanic who first alerted authorities to potential problems at Alaska Airlines’ Oakland maintenance facility, has now filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against the company. Liotine charged that information on the airline’s Web site suggested he was incompetent and he had accused his supervisors of misconduct because they passed him over for […]
In a case that illustrates the high cost of lapses in financial controls, a former Starbucks information technology manager has been arrested and charged with an embezzlement scheme that cost the coffee company $3.7 million. Rosemary Heinen allegedly used her position to set up fictitious businesses, create phony invoices, bill Starbucks millions for services that […]
If a pregnant employee is injured at work and her baby is born with health defects or problems, you could get blamed. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to take preventive measures to protect a fetus from harm because some approaches that might seem sensible are actually illegal. We’ll look at a new case involving a […]
Charges of sexual harassment are bubbling in the White House kitchen. Franette McCulloch, a former pastry chef, has charged that her boss of 17 years, Roland Mesnier, made unwelcome sexual propositions to her and then turned hostile when she refused his repeated advances. McCulloch claims that after she complained to White House officials, they said […]