Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A new publication from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health includes recommendations for limiting the negative effects of shift work. Among the strategies covered are scheduling heavy or demanding work when employees are most alert, avoiding quick shift changes and eliminating permanent night shifts. A free copy of the publication “Plain Language About […]
In a case involving the world’s largest law firm and one of the biggest individual sexual harassment awards ever, the California Court of Appeal recently approved more than $3.5 million in damages to a legal secretary who had worked at the firm less than three months. This new ruling and the stunning size of the […]
Mandatory arbitration of employment disputes continues to be controversial. One unresolved issue has been whether union contracts can require workers to arbitrate all employment disputes. The U.S. Supreme Court has now agreed to rule on this question.11 Although arbitration clauses for various workplace disputes have been used for years in union contracts, courts have disagreed […]
An employee with HIV who wrote on a disability benefits application that he was unable to perform his job can still sue for discrimination, according to a new court ruling. For several years, Wells Fargo Bank had accommodated Andrew Bell by allowing him to telecommute one day a week, but the bank later decided Bell […]
The San Francisco Giants have been sued for sexual harassment by 13 baseball players who claim they were harassed by a scout in the Dominican Republic. The players alleged the scout demanded sex from them in exchange for keeping them on a Giants’ farm team, and when they refused, he terminated them. The players argued […]
It’s your busiest time of the year, and an employee informs you she needs to travel to Yugoslavia to witness reported visions of the Virgin Mary. If you say no, are you guilty of religious discrimination? According to a new ruling from the federal Court of Appeal, not necessarily. But responding to requests for religious […]
You know you may have an obligation to accommodate a disabled employee or risk a lawsuit for disability discrimination. But you might not be aware that in California you can also be sued for discriminating against workers with certain medical conditions–even if they are notdisabled and do not need an accommodation. That’s what happened recently […]
With more companies turning to temporary and leased employees to meet staffing needs, some tricky legal issues can come up. For example, employees are only eligible for family leave after they’ve worked for you for 12 months. But what if a person spent some of that time as a temp through an employment agency? According […]
Figuring out your obligations when an employee asks for an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act can sometimes be complex-and risky. There are no black-and-white rules describing exactly what you’re required to do, especially when the accommodation might involve modifying job duties or adjusting work schedules. But a new court ruling helps set some […]
A California appellate court has upheld a hefty jury award to an employee who was fired for purportedly stealing a soft drink from his employer’s convenience store. The termination came just hours after the employee testified against the company in a co-worker’s unemployment hearing—suggesting the real reason for the firing was the testimony, not the […]