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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has reported that discrimination charge filings in 2005 were down in all bias categories, and dropped by 5 percent overall. The EEOC received 75,428 charges for the fiscal year 2005 (which ended Sept. 30) and recovered almost $380 million in monetary relief through enforcement actions and litigation. The […]
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released figures showing that in 2005, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, the same percentage as in 2004. Note that while the percentage remained steady, the actual number of union members increased by 213,000. Union membership was at a peak […]
In late January, a former U.S. postal worker went on a shooting rampage at a mail processing plant in the town of Goleta near Santa Barbara. The ex-employee killed five, wounded another, and then turned the gun on herself. She reportedly had been placed on medical leave from her job in 2003 for psychological reasons–at […]
Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division collected $166 million in back wages on behalf of 241,000 employees for employer violations of laws enforced by the division. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal wage-and- hour law, the division recovered a total of $134.2 million, including $119.4 million for […]
On February 6, 2006, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s (OFCCP) new e-cruiting rule went into effect. The rule, which sets out recordkeeping requirements for Internet-based job applications, applies to employers that have federal contracts in excess of $10,000.
California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has unveiled a new website aimed at combatting workers’ compensation fraud by spotlighting workers’ comp fraud convictions. The commissioner says the site will be updated monthly with new conviction data.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has implemented the first major changes to the EEO-1 Report in decades. EEO-1 Reports must be filed annually by employers with 100 or more employees, or employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees. The EEO-1 Report provides the federal government with […]
Fashion retailer Polo Ralph Lauren has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit charging that the company violated California law by requiring employees to buy and wear Polo Ralph Lauren clothes on the job or face disciplinary action. The settlement consists of $1 million in cash and $500,000 in gift cards. […]
Recently, the abusive ex-husband of one of our employees entered our facility and threatened the employee and several of her co-workers. No one was injured, but the employees are now looking to us to do something. Should we encourage employees who are victims of domestic violence to notify us if there’s a possibility of this […]
We need to know whether we can treat new employees differently as far as the benefits we offer them. For example, our policy says that with under five years of service, employees get two weeks of vacation. However, when we hire experienced people, they want us to match the vacation they had at their old […]