Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.
Employers usually put a lot of effort into developing a nondiscriminatory hiring process. But they don’t always apply the same careful planning to promotions, which can be an expensive oversight. We’ll review a recent case involving an employee who sued her employer for sex discrimination and retaliation after losing out on a promotion when the […]
If you receive a sexual harassment complaint, you must promptly investigate and impose corrective action to stop the harassment. But it’s less clear what you should do if you can’t substantiate the complaint. A new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision focuses on how far you need to go in this situation.
Under federal law, employers with 20 or more employees must offer continued health plan benefits, at the workers’ expense, for a period of time after employment ends. And in California, employers with fewer than 20 employees must also do so. However, under both federal and state regulations, you don’t have to offer this COBRA coverage […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that permits the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to sue you for job discrimination, even if the employee has signed a mandatory arbitration agreement. We’ll explain this new ruling and its impact.
The Bush administration has thrown out a Clinton-era rule governing contractor responsibility. The rule had banned the award of federal government contracts to businesses that had criminal or civil violations of federal labor and employment, safety, environmental, tax, antitrust or consumer protection laws in the preceding three years. Enforcement of the rule—which the business community […]
Although the California Fair Employment and Housing Act is modeled on federal anti-discrimination laws, the state law is often more protective of employee rights. A California Court of Appeal has now ruled that when it comes to employer liability for sexual harassment by a supervisor, the state statute is stronger—and you can’t take advantage of […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, has upheld a $1 million punitive damages award to an employee who was subjected to repeated racial slurs and jokes with his supervisor’s knowledge. The new ruling, one of the largest of its kind, serves as a reminder that it’s imperative to take steps to prevent—and […]
Chris Fotiades was a production manager at the Anaheim branch of Hi-Tech, an auto body shop chain. One day while he was in the restroom, store manager Sam Mirable allegedly picked the lock on the door and kicked it open. Then, assistant manager William Hendricks reportedly snapped a Polaroid photo of Fotiades urinating. Afterward, Fotiades […]
California courts have repeatedly refused to enforce noncompete agreements. Now, a new California appeals court decision upholding a whopping $1,080,000 punitive damages award shows the high price you can pay for firing an employee who won’t sign a noncompete agreement.
Federal OSHA’s revised rules for recording workplace injuries and illnesses took effect January 1. Although they’re not yet formally implemented in California, a Cal/ OSHA spokesman told CEA the agency expects the rules to be officially adopted by mid-February and is advising California employers to start following the new federal guidelines now for all 2002 […]