Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Makris, senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Rhoma Young, of the HR consulting firm Rhoma Young & Associates, offered tips for ensuring that performance appraisals are used legally and effectively. Their suggestions came in a recent BLR®/HR Hero® audio conference. From a legal perspective, performance appraisals are important because they can help defend […]
In the Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet case, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has sued to recover nearly $2 million in unpaid wages and damages for 84 employees.
HR’s watchdog agencies—the DOL, EEOC, and OFCCP—are looking at a new variant on discrimination they call “steering.” It’s not immediate discrimination, but long-range discrimination. What Is Steering? “Steering” may be charged when people in a protected class are “steered” to jobs with lower long-term potential than other similar jobs. For example, in a grocery store, […]
Communicating the Sales Incentive Plan Sometimes Pasteris sees the situation in which there was a great sales plan design but it failed because it was not well understood and appreciated by the salespeople. To avoid that situation, make sure that you: Send an announcement letter, particularly with the new plan that spells out its features. […]
Sales Organization Sales compensation plans often fail because they are not rooted in careful analysis beforehand. Your plan has to be defined by the market you are in and who your customers and competitors are. For example, if your customers are all young, you may do your sales work over the Internet; if you sell […]
Collective wage/hour suits can turn relatively small and inexpensive problems into very large and very expensive ones, but there may be a technique that makes the collective action moot, says Attorney Deanna Brinkerhoff. In Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, at least in this case, action by the employer to […]
On Jan. 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that time U.S. Steel Corp. employees spend donning and doffing protective gear is not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The ruling affirmed a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sandifer et al v. U.S. Steel Corp. (No. 12-417). Sandifer dealt with whether time steel workers spent […]
Wage/hour litigation is heating up, partly because attorneys have figured out that even for small cases, in which the client-employee may get $1,000, the attorney can collect $15,000 in attorneys’ fees, says Attorney Deanna Brinkerhoff. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) litigation is heating up, and partly for that reason—it’s low-hanging fruit for plaintiffs’ attorneys. Brinkerhoff, […]
In tonight’s State of the Union Address President Obama will announce an increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10 per hour and he will call on Congress to pass a proposed similar wage increase for all workers. The morning of Jan. 28, the White House released a preview of the President’s executive […]
HRIS Personnel Records Checklist The more questions to which you answer “yes,” the better your computer system is able to handle personnel records. Records maintained Do you have a computer system for the following personnel records: Yes No Beneficiaries of benefits plan? ❒ ❒ Cost of benefits plan? ❒ ❒ Date employees admitted into […]