Month: June 2006

Before you do job training, check out the need

Job training can improve your organization, but only if you use it in situations that complement your business plan When an organization isn’t reaching potential, the snap answer is often “do some job training.” Indeed, there are many powerful job training programs now available in a variety of formats. The power of video and computer-based […]

Before job descriptions, job analysis

You can’t really write a job description until you’ve explored all phases of the position you seek to fill. Job analysis is the process that does it. In today’s business, before there is a job, there is a job description. But, say occupational specialists from Ohio State University, before there can be a job description, […]

Adding Up the Costs of the Family & Medical Leave Act – FMLA

A business-funded think tank has surveyed employers and concluded they “face a significant financial burden” when it comes to complying with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Based on its survey, the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policy Foundation (EPF) estimates that FMLA compliance cost employers $21 billion in 2004. The direct costs included net labor […]

Will your overtime payment practices trigger a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) audit?

Many employers are worrying overtime about overtime as the Fair Labor Standards Act is used more aggressively, and against some of the biggest players in business. Competitors in the retail business have been reluctant to take on Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retail chain. No such problem for the U.S. Dept. of Labor. The department’s bird […]

Supreme Court Defers Illegal Worker Racketeering Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has deferred ruling on a closely watched lawsuit that poses the question of whether an employer can be sued under the federal racketeering and organized crime law for recruiting illegal immigrants with the purpose of suppressing salaries for legal workers.

Harassment: California Supreme Court Says FEHA Amendment Retroactive

In 2003, the California Legislature amended the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to state that employers are potentially liable when third party nonemployees—such as customers or clients—sexually harass their employees. Prior to the amendment, the language of the FEHA seemed to impose liability on an employer only when the harassment was committed by the […]

ERI Wins Sixth Editorial Award

The Employer Resource Institute, publisher of the California Employer Advisor, has just won its sixth editorial award. CEA’s two-part series on blogging, which ran in the June 2005 and July 2005 issues, earned second prize in the Best Instructional Reporting category of the Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Foundation Editorial Awards. The NEPF Awards recognize excellence […]

Under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), "reasonable accommodation" depends on the job, not just the employee

Employment law attorneys note that ADA will not force you to make “reasonable accommodations” to the point that they hamper job performance When the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, some employers went into a tailspin. ADA mandated “reasonable accommodations” for the disabled. That invoked the specter of all manner of expensive […]

Immigration: H-1B Visa Cap Reached for Fiscal Year 2007

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that, as of the end of May 2006, it already received enough H-1B visa petitions to meet and exceed the H-1B visa cap of 64,300 for the 2007 fiscal year (which begins on October 1, 2006). The final date to submit a petition for consideration […]

How the Newest Supreme Court Justice – Samuel Alito – Thinks

In one of Justice Samuel Alito’s last opinions for the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals  in Philadelphia before joining the U.S. Supreme Court, he provided us with a view of his reasoning process with respect to employment discrimination claims. He authored an opinion in a case involving retaliation and hostile work environment claims. The […]