Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
California law prohibits employers from asking job applicants about most marijuana-related convictions that are more than two years old. A new California appeals court decision, Starbucks v. Superior Court (Lords), highlights the fact that employers must be extremely clear with applicants that they are not seeking this barred info.
You don’t have to try very hard these days to find employment law references in pop culture. Movies and TV shows examine issues of employment discrimination, politicians seem unable to resist the urge to text photos of their private parts to their disgusted subordinates, and professional athletes provide ample fodder for lawyers in desperate search […]
By Dr. Edward E. Hubbard There’s a fair amount of buzz around diversity measurement and analytics. Advances in software, newly-available data sources, and how-to manuals have made it easier gain access to diversity measures. Although interest in measuring the effects of diversity has been growing, the topic still challenges even the most sophisticated and progressive […]
An employer will pay almost $5 million to settle claims it automatically fired employees who used 12 weeks of medical leave and were not ready to return to work, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Nov. 9. The settlement resolves claims EEOC filed alleging that the automatic termination policy violated the reasonable accommodation provisions […]
Docking an exempt employee’s salary is fraught with risk. If your policy is to dock for disciplinary infractions or you improperly dock on a consistent basis, you lose the opportunity to correct illegal deductions—and run the risk of forfeiting exempt status for all workers covered by the policy. A new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals […]
DOL is heading your way with $25 Million for increased enforcement and they expect to generate—from your company and others—$7 Billion of additional revenue over the next 10 years. To avoid getting ensnared in this web of increased enforcement, the solution is simple say attorneys Veronica Gray & E. George Joseph—audit, audit, audit. Gray and […]
Temperatures aren’t the only things heating up this week. On Wednesday, June 15, the Obama administration shifted the ever-intensifying immigration dialogue back to federal turf when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it will begin conducting its second round of immigration audits this year. Authorities with ICE, a division of the Department of […]
by Susan G. Fentin Massachusetts is set to soon have the highest minimum wage in the country. On June 26, Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill that will raise the state’s minimum wage from $8 per hour to $11 an hour by 2017, the highest statewide minimum wage in the country and a full 50 […]
Everyone admits that performance appraisals are important—but few are pleased with the effectiveness of their process. What’s happening with performance management in the real world? What’s working? What are your competitors up to? Let’s find out! Please participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful […]
by John Phillips Here we go again. First, cooking queen Paula Deen. Now, NFL player Riley Cooper. The two situations are different, but both involve use of the N-word. For Deen, the question was whether, at some point in the past, her use of the N-word and her consideration of having black employees dress up […]