Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
When our employees go on leave, such as FMLA leave, we adjust their appraisal dates to reflect the leave time. For example, if they take 3 months of leave, they get their appraisal at the 15-month point rather than the usual 12 months. Now some of them are saying that the FMLA says that leave […]
Several employee groups—firefighters, sheriffs, police officers, guards, and forest rangers—filed class action suits against their public-sector employers in California, charging that they weren’t fully compensated for the costs of purchasing, replacing, cleaning, and maintaining required work uniforms, in violation of Labor Code Section 2802. This provision requires an employer to reimburse employees for all necessary […]
Renee Terri Henderson, a bus driver with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), has plead guilty to charges that she submitted fraudulent workers’ comp claims. As a result of claims Henderson filed with the MTA, she collected weekly total temporary disability benefits of $386.65 for nine months. However, an investigation by the California Department […]
Fraudulent workers’ comp claims cost employers millions every year. And while fraudulent claims can often be hard to prove, there are some red flags it can pay to look out for. Possible indicators of employee fraud include:
The benefits of using nonemployee workers such as independent contractors are obvious: you don’t have to provide a contractor with expensive employee benefits, and you retain greater flexibility to quickly alter your workforce as needs change. But if you make a mistake and incorrectly classify an employee as an independent contractor, the consequences can be […]
Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of benefits recently drafted a memo to the board of directors proposing ways for the company to save on health care costs by attracting a “healthier, more productive workforce.” Among other things, the memo suggested that all jobs at Wal-Mart be redefined to include some level of physical activity–such as requiring […]
Undocumented workers who are injured on the job are entitled to seek workers’ compensation benefits, a California Court of Appeals has ruled.
The Golden State is often criticized as being unfriendly to businesses, so it’s reasonable to assume that the state would qualify as employee-friendly. But researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts have come to a surprising conclusion: California ranks in the bottom half of the 50 states in terms of worker-friendliness.
We have two main types of nonemployee workers: temps (who usually work just a few days or weeks) and leased employees (who work basically full time). In both cases, we pay a fee to the agency and the leasing company, and they handle all the employment matters, including hiring, payment, and benefits. My question is […]
Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed A.B. 48, which would have boosted the minimum wage for California workers to $7.75 an hour by July 2007. In a veto message, the governor stated that he supports an increase in the minimum wage–which hasn’t been boosted since 2002–but that he isn’t in favor of legislation, like A.B. 48, that […]