Category: HR Management & Compliance

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.

Overtime Claims: Overtime Misclassification Class-Action Suits Not Letting Up–Who’s The Latest Target; Plus A 6-Point Compliance Checklist

The nation’s largest privately held car rental company is the newest casualty in a growing list of high pro- file employers sued for misclassifying workers as managers. Management assistants for Enterprise Rent-A-Car recently filed a class-action lawsuit claiming they’re owed unpaid overtime because they were improperly treated as managerial employees exempt from the overtime laws.Claims […]

Exempt Employees: New Ruling Clarifies When Outside Sales Staff Don’t Have To Be Paid Overtime

As a general rule, you’re not required to pay overtime to employees who spend most of their time making sales away from your regular place of business. But figuring out which outside sales personnel are really exempt from the overtime laws isn’t always easy, especially because many employees perform a mix of sales and non-sales […]

Wage Setoffs: Employer Sued For Firing Worker Who Objected To Paycheck Deduction; When You Can And Can’t Dock Wages

If an employee breaks or loses a valuable piece of equipment, or a worker owes you money from a loan, you may be tempted to make a deduction from the person’s next paycheck. But you need to act cautiously because there are strict rules governing exactly when you can and can’t take money out of […]

News Notes: Jury Rules For Employer Who Fired Older Worker

An employer who discharged an older employee because she lacked modern computer skills was not guilty of illegal age discrimination, according to a Sacramento jury. Janet Davis, 49, worked in the accounting department of Yamas Control, Inc. Davis contended she was doing her job satisfactorily and had received several raises and favorable performance reviews. So […]

Sexual Harassment: $3.5 Million Damage Award To Secretary Upheld; What The Employer Did Wrong

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 […]

News Notes: Can Union Contracts Bar Discrimination Lawsuits?

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 […]

News Notes: Giants Sued Over Charges of Recruiter’s Harassment

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 […]

Wrongful Termination: Why Employee Won $250,000 After Telling Employer He Had Cancer

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 […]

Family Leave Eligibility: Do You Have To Count Time As A Temp?

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 […]

Reducing Retaliation Lawsuit Risks: Employee Fired For Taking Soda Wins $400,000—What Court’s New Ruling Means To You

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 […]