Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
After reducing a huge backlog of cases, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed fewer charges last year but significantly increased the amount of money it won from employers. Settlements obtained before cases entered litigation totaled $145.2 million, just shy of the 1994 record of $146.3 million. Lawsuits generated another $51.2 million in awards last […]
A new court decision says the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) doesn’t require you to transfer an employee because of a bad working relationship with a supervisor. Sherrylen Weiler, a Household Finance Corp. manager, claimed she became disabled by depression, stress and anxiety following a performance review in which her supervisor raised his voice and […]
On April 17, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to adopt rewritten and clarified workplace ergonomics regulations aimed at reducing repetitive motion injuries. The regulations probably won’t take effect before early July-assuming threatened lawsuits from employer and labor groups don’t cause further delays. We’ll have a full report in an upcoming issue. […]
The most recent drug testing survey published by SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories indicates the number of workers who test positive for drug use is at an all-time low. Only 5.8% of more than 4 million workplace drug tests the company performed in 1996 were positive, a 13% decline from 1995. Of special interest to California […]
Employees who work at Mervyn’s Department Store have filed two lawsuits accusing the retail chain of coercing them into working up to 80 hours a week without overtime. One lawsuit, filed on behalf of 1,300 hourly “team coordinators,” claims they were forced to work “off the clock” through lunch and breaks and were not paid […]
Have you ever fired an employee and then worried that he would join a competitor and “bad mouth” your organization to important customers or vendors? One employer in that situation went a little too far in trying to control the damage to its reputation-and found itself ordered to pay the former employee $1 million […]
It’s obvious you have to pay employees for all the hours they spend doing their job. But violations of this rule by employers are common, and they can be very expensive. A few years back, for example, Nordstrom had to set aside millions of dollars to settle a class action lawsuit charging numerous “off-the-clock” violations. […]
You must inform Cal/OSHA if an employee dies or suffers a serious injury at work. Now, the time for reporting these incidents has been shortened. But, in some situations you should get legal advice before you call the agency.
In April, we reported how a savvy employer successfully defended itself against a wrongful termination claim by conducting a thorough investigation and review of the facts before making the decision to terminate. This month, we look at a case in which an employer had ample opportunities to protect an employee from harassment but didn’t-because […]
If you have a defined benefit pension plan for your employees, thanks to stock market gains it may contain more money than you’ll need to pay out in benefits. But be careful before you use this “extra” money. One employer recently found there are strict rules about what you can and can’t do with […]