Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A recent development serves as an alert for all employers contemplating a large-scale lay-off without prior notice. The Connecticut Attorney General is suing Walker Digital, owned by Priceline founder Jay Walker, charging that the company violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN) when it let 106 workers go without adequate notice in November. […]
On their last day of work, the unionized employees of bankrupt Aero Stretch Inc., a Gardena aerospace manufacturer, were told they could apply for positions the next day with the new company taking over, Advance Stretchforming International Inc. (ASI). The employees were also informed that there would be no union at ASI. Now the federal […]
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a videotape can be worth many times more when a surveillance camera catches an employee in the act of dramatizing a phony workers’ comp injury. That’s what happened in a recent case that resulted in the criminal conviction of a malingering employee who was also ordered to […]
It’s not uncommon for employers to offer older workers early retirement or severance benefits in exchange for having them waive potential age-bias claims they might have under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). But employees sometimes have second thoughts—after they have accepted the benefits. Now the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued new […]
Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay $96.9 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by long-term workers who claimed the company misclassified them as temporary employees to avoid paying benefits. The so-called “permatemps”-who performed the same work as full-time staff-sought benefits such as health insurance and participation in the company’s lucrative employee stock purchase […]
The U.S. Department of Justice and Time Warner Inc. have reached a $5.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit charging that since 1990 the publishing giant has misclassified employees as independent contractors or temporary workers, causing them to be denied benefits including health insurance, pensions and employee stock ownership. The company did not admit liability, […]
Calculating overtime is usually a straightforward process of multiplying the worker’s regular hourly rate by one and a half. However, a recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case illustrates that the computation is more complex if you pay an employee a flat rate per day. That’s because you need to figure out what the hourly […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued new guidelines explaining how federal employment discrimination laws apply to employee benefits. Last month we examined the rules regarding age discrimination. This month we look at the EEOC guidelines dealing with disability and pregnancy discrimination.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued controversial final ergonomics standards that are tougher than California’s current law. The final federal rule is scheduled to take effect Jan. 16, 2001. California will then have six months to adopt a similar standard.
Many employers make it a practice to periodically update their employee manuals and policies. But where do you stand if an employee objects to a new policy? In a recent case, a California Court of Appeal rejected a worker’s attempt to challenge a provision that was added to an employee handbook. More importantly, the court […]