Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Special from Atlanta—SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition People can’t admit to their own performance failures, says attorney James McDonald, so when they are fired, they wonder, What could it have been? And they come up with: “I must have been discriminated against based on my looks!” McDonald, who is a partner in the Irvine, California office […]
In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered what employers can do about heated political discussions in the workplace. Today, sample policies regarding political activity plus an introduction to the indispensible 50×50 (50 Employment Laws in 50 States). Here’s sample Political Activity Policy number one: Employees are not to participate in election activities while working and are not […]
What do you do if your workplace is so politically polarized that workers in the same department can’t have a civil discussion without becoming red-faced and loud-mouthed? In a BusinessWeek article, Bruce Weinstein, PhD., who calls himself “The Ethics Guy,”says that most political issues are by their nature highly divisive. At stake in this year’s […]
A supervisor’s apparent bias in the firing of her employee proved costly in a recent 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which upheld a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division awarding $413,000 in damages and liquidated damages in an FMLA retaliation claim based on cat’s-paw liability. […]
Yesterday’s Advisor covered what employers can’t do when fighting off unions; today, eight steps you can take, plus an introduction to an extraordinary program prepared especially for smaller—or even one-person—HR departments. Once again, we turn to BLR’s managing editor of HR.BLR.com, attorney Patricia Trainor, SPHR for advice. In addition to communicating with employees about unions, […]
The off-week hours of rotational workers may count against FMLA leave, a federal judge reluctantly decided in a recent U.S. District Court ruling. The Oklahoma judge ruled for a trucking firm in an FMLA interference claim by a fired dispatcher who failed to return to work after he exhausted his 12 weeks of job-protected FMLA […]
Union issues are suddenly on the front burner. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which enforces the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) has become particularly proactive in recent months, witness its very strong stand on social media rights of employees. For the legal do’s and don’ts for employers, we turned to attorney Patricia Trainor, SPHR, […]
When you must defend your decision to fire an individual based solely on his poor performance, no one likes the idea of having to scale a circumstantial Mount Everest in a court of law. But a cohesive paper trail of evidence is critical when you are asked to establish legal footing and justify your adverse […]
Special from Atlanta–SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition Your employees are doing compensable work on their handhelds after hours, says attorney Joseph Beachboard, and many of then are doing while they are driving. Beachboard, who is a shareholder in the Los Angeles and Torrence, California offices of national employment law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & […]
A sweeping new U.S. Department of Labor enforcement initiative targeting California’s apparel industry may highlight wage and hour compliance issues for retailers and manufacturers. The companies that make, ship, market and sell clothing have long faced scrutiny over labor practices but industry proponents argue that they have made great strides. DOL appears to disagree, launching […]