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HR best practices, employment law tips, news and analysis, Q&As, and lessons learned from the courtroom.
by Mark I. Schickman U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death marks a landmark in American law. Off the bench, he was avuncular, professorial, funny, and friendly, a mind like a machine gun, dangerous and quick. In last year’s biggest employment case, EEOC v. Abercrombie and Fitch, Scalia was the most aggressive questioner of the […]
When a workplace accident results in an employee being injured, an employer is likely to experience a visit from a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspector. Such a visit is no time for an employer to guess about how to handle the agency’s investigation. Recently attorneys from the Employers Counsel Network, which focuses […]
by Boyd Byers Several HR managers I work with sometimes refer to employees as their “children” and joke that at times (particularly when they’re dealing with their “problem children”), they feel more like grade-school teachers than HR managers. A recent study reaffirms the inherent truth in this analogy. From the playground to the workplace Childish […]
Checking references has a way of putting employers in a pickle. When they want information about a potential new hire, they’re often frustrated when references divulge no more than dates of employment, position held, and pay rate. That “name, rank, and serial number” response can be frustrating. But when the employer is on the receiving […]
by Lisa Berg One of employers’ most common complaints about administering Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave is employees’ tendency to abuse intermittent leave. When combatting this type of fraud, employers must navigate tricky U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations as well as federal court rulings that limit the type of information that can […]
It’s one thing to strive for an equitable compensation system, but it’s quite another to really understand whether employees are being paid fairly and what to do if they’re not. With employees having instant access to salary data through the Internet—data that may or may not be relevant to their situations—and the debate becoming a […]
by Jodi R. Bohr Although employers’ obligation to provide breaks for nursing mothers is not new (it took effect with the March 23, 2010, signing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)), I’ve recently been presented with many questions about what the law requires. From the questions, I’ve realized two things: (1) Employers still do not […]
by Ryann E. Ricchio Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges have clearly become a cost of doing business for many (if not most) employers today. Like anything else, employers can get into a routine—or maybe even a “rut”—in investigating and responding to charges. This article provides a refresher on how to successfully defend EEOC and […]
Workplace violence—it’s a subject so difficult and so frightening that employers may feel paralyzed when considering how to prevent it. If someone is showing violent tendencies, an employer may want to fire the employee to remove the threat. But what if that’s the action that triggers more rage, worsening the risk instead of reducing it? […]