Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A recent verdict against an employer that failed to properly screen an ex-convict serves as a serious warning: You need to thoroughly check applicant backgrounds before putting someone to work as an employee or independent contractor. We’ll offer tips to help you prevent the problems one company faced.
Managing employees with mental disabilities can be challenging—especially when the workers pose a threat to others’ safety. If you take preemptive action, you can get sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but if you don’t, you risk the tragic consequences of a violent incident. Two recent cases provide guidance on how to handle potentially […]
Employers tend to give a lot of leeway to high-level or valuable employees. But if a rogue boss’s behavior goes unchecked—and forces other employees to quit—you may have a lawsuit on your hands. In one recent case, the employer’s failure to rein in a renegade manager turned into a $600,000 mistake.
Suppose an employee in their 50s or 60s wants to take advantage of your employee educational assistance program. You may be reluctant to shell out thousands of dollars to educate a worker who’s close to retirement. One employer that faced this situation recently got slapped with an age discrimination lawsuit when an older worker’s request […]
In California, most agreements that restrict employees from competing with former employers are illegal and California courts won’t enforce them. But what if you want to hire someone who signed a non-compete provision with an employer in another state that does recognize these agreements? A California Court of Appeal has confirmed that California employers aren’t […]
Figuring out whether an administrative employee is exempt from overtime can be a challenge. But as a recent California Court of Appeal ruling highlights, the consequences for misclassifying employees can be staggering. We’ll provide guidelines you can use to help ensure that your workers are classified correctly.
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 […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency charged with enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws, has been sued for age bias by three of its former staff attorneys in Atlanta. Maureen Malone, 56, and William Outlaw, 62, claim they were forced into retirement after being given a choice of transferring to other offices or being terminated. And […]
Del Erdmann said he quit his job as assistant director of nursing at Miguel Villa after owner/supervisor Velda Pierce repeatedly told him he would go to hell if he didn’t become a heterosexual and join the Mormon Church. Now a federal court in San Francisco has given Erdmann the green light to sue Miguel Villa […]
About 1,300 former Taco Bell workers have won a lawsuit in Oregon that charged that supervisors doctored employee time cards in order to meet productivity goals and earn bonuses. Taco Bell supervisors allegedly admitted that they were pressured by senior managers to shave hours off time cards. Paul Breed, an attorney for the workers, has […]