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Readers Talk Back: Healthcare Collapse Column Makes Boomers’ Blood Boil

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady My February 1 e-pinion declared that while we’d all like to make universal health care an entitlement, it’s just not going to happen as aging Baby Boomers threaten to collapse the system. Serious compromise will be called for. Well, that column generated many interesting responses. Here’s a sampling: […]

Retirement Plans: Automatic Enrollment Only Part of Equation for 401(k) Savings; Tips for Ensuring Quality Enrollment

Only 25 percent of the 300 mid- to large-sized employers polled in a survey by global HR-services company Hewitt Associates said they viewed a high participation rate in their 401(k) plans as the prime measure of the plans’ success. The survey indicated that more employers are placing less importance on the number of employees enrolled […]

Washington Could Be Seventh State to Allow Same-sex Marriage

Legislation is wending its way through both chambers of the Washington State legislature that if enacted would make Washington the seventh state where same-sex marriage is legal. It could happen: a sufficient number of Senators for passage in that chamber have said they would vote for it if it reaches the Senate floor, and Gov. […]

Supreme Court Rules Public Employee’s Text Messages Not Private

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public employer did not violate an employee’s constitutional privacy rights by searching his personal (and often sexually explicit) text messages that were sent and received on his employer-issued pager. The Backstory The City of Ontario, California, issued pagers that could send and receive text messages to Ontario […]

News Notes: Federal Labor Law Superseded Lawsuit Claiming Pay for Family Leave Time

Verizon employee Denise Harris was granted family and medical leave for a bad back. Under the union contract covering Harris’ employment, Verizon paid Harris sick pay benefits during the first part of her leave, but cut off her benefits when she didn’t provide a physician’s report confirming she couldn’t work. Harris sued, claiming the failure […]

News Notes: Injury And Illness Rates Continue To Decline

California’s workplace injury and illness rates continued to drop in 1999 despite record high employment, according to recent data compiled by the state Division of Labor Statistics and Research. Mirroring a national downward trend, California’s injury rate fell to 6.3 injuries per 100 full-time employees—down from 6.7 in 1998—the lowest rate ever in the 29 […]