Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The state Legislature’s newly approved workers’ comp reform bill (A.B. 749) imposes steep benefit hikes for injured workers that will likely hit employers hard in the pocketbook. After vetoing similar measures three times before, Gov. Davis has now signed the bill into law. We’ll run down the new law’s major provisions.
With the recent overseas military activities, many employers have been faced with managing the absences of reservists who have been called to active duty. Now a new decision from the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals underscores that it’s critical to understand your military leave obligations and proceed cautiously before disciplining an employee who takes […]
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the use of mandatory arbitration agreements for employment disputes in a lawsuit brought by a Circuit City employee. But now the Ninth Circuit, after taking a second look at the arbitration provisions in that case, has tossed out the agreement, ruling that it was unduly lopsided and didn’t […]
Under federal Department of Transportation rules, professional drivers who operate vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds must be DOT certified. United Parcel Service had a policy of only hiring individuals for driving positions who had this certification. Based on this rule, UPS turned down an employee who couldn’t meet DOT standards because she was deaf. […]
In the largest corporate bankruptcy in the nation’s history, thousands of Enron employees lost their retirement savings after the company stock invested in their 401(k) plans became worthless. Now, in the wake of Enron’s collapse, Congress is considering a raft of legislation to reform 401(k) plan rules.
Suppose an employee shows up at work on her day off to see co-workers and gets injured when something falls on her. Could you be liable for damages? Or is workers’ compensation the employee’s only remedy? A new case provides some answers.
Under a little-known federal law—the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act—the maximum interest rate that may be charged to active military service members for obligations incurred before active duty is limited to 6%. And now the federal Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration has announced that this interest cap applies to employee benefit plan loans. Federal […]
House Republicans have defeated a measure that would have forced insurers to cover mental health conditions to the same extent that they cover other medical problems. The provision, which the Senate had tacked on to a federal spending bill, would not have required employers to provide mental health coverage as part of employee benefits, but […]
The number of California workers killed on the job in 2000 was the lowest since 1992, when the state first published such data. Preliminary figures from the California Department of Industrial Relations show there were 553 deaths in 2000, down from 644 a decade ago. Over 41% of the total deaths resulted from transportation accidents, […]
The Social Security Administration has agreed to pay $7.75 million to settle a lawsuit by 2,200 male African-American current and former employees who claimed they were denied promotions and pay because of their race and sex. The lawsuit charged that African-American men were kept in low-grade jobs and were more likely to be disciplined than […]