Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has rescinded a policy under which the agency viewed employer-sponsored health plans that were reduced or eliminated on the basis of age or Medicare eligibility as violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The agency acted after receiving input from employer and labor groups suggesting that the rule discouraged […]
Former employees who make off with your trade secrets can spell disaster for your business. Once confidential information is in a competitor’s hands, the damage is done and may be impossible to reverse. Now a case involving Fremont-based Avant! Corp.—which had to pay huge fines and whose top executives are off to jail—provides a dramatic […]
Farmers Insurance Exchange has been ordered to pay $90 million to 2,400 adjusters who claimed they were misclassified as exempt administrative employees and cheated out of years of overtime pay. The record-breaking award by an Alameda County jury could ultimately top $130 million with interest and attorneys’ fees. The adjusters, who make an average of […]
A San Fernando jury has awarded $576,000 to an Auto Club of Southern California employee who claimed she was repeatedly groped and subjected to unwanted attention for two years by a co-worker who was so persistent that he followed her into the women’s restroom. Cheryl Parker said she reported the problem in writing to a […]
A federal appeals court has ruled that an AT&T account representative who suffered from a bad case of the flu was entitled to FMLA leave because she was unable to work for more than three days and was treated twice. Kimberly Miller sued after she was disciplined and ultimately fired for excessive absenteeism. Although […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has given employees at Consolidated Freightways’ Mira Loma terminal the go-ahead to sue their employer under state law for invasion of privacy after video cameras were discovered hidden behind two-way mirrors in men’s and women’s restrooms. The company argued that the case should be thrown out because a determination […]
Lawrence Moreau was chief financial officer for Los Angeles-based Direct Express, which was later acquired by Paystation America. Less than three months after starting work, Moreau was fired for allegedly touching two female employees inappropriately. He sued, claiming the charge was unfounded and a company pretext to break his three-year employment contract. Now a Los […]
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 […]
Kevin Terry, a customer service representative at a Time Warner Entertainment Company office in Fayetteville, Ark., suffered from nocturnal epileptic seizures. His supervisor, Jane Foster, accommodated his condition by allowing him to arrive after the usual starting time and stay later in the evening to make up the missed time. But when angry co-workers complained […]
Whistleblowers have become increasingly common in the American workplace. These employees feel compelled to expose situations they consider wrong. And they risk being ostracized at work, or worse—being fired. A recent federal court decision affecting California once again underscores that both public and private employers should take the proper steps to avoid both liability and […]