Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
When you’re interviewing applicants, it can be tempting to paint an overly rosy picture of the job to snare a good candidate. But be careful. If what you say isn’t accurate, you could wind up on the wrong side of an expensive fraud lawsuit. We’ll tell you about one employer who recently had this problem […]
An Oakland jury has ordered Home Depot to shell out almost $1.7 million for retaliating against an employee who complained about sexual harassment and failing to accommodate her under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Denise Restivo, a computer systems coordinator, was demoted and transferred after charging that managers made sexual remarks and mocked the company’s […]
There has been a surge of class action lawsuits filed by workers seeking huge damages for back overtime based on claims that they were improperly classified as managers exempt from overtime laws. Now, more than 600 low-level managers have sued Robinsons-May Inc., a retailer with 46 department stores in California. The workers contend that although […]
Reaffirming its decision from last fall, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal covering California has ruled that employees who were misclassified as independent contractors by Microsoft are eligible to participate retroactively in the company’s lucrative stock purchase program and possibly its pension plan as well. Part of Microsoft’s problem was that its forms and […]
An employee is physically un-comfortable working at your office because of a disability. He asks to be allowed to telecommute at least one day a week. Do you have to agree to this arrangement? A recent court ruling says the answer may be yes. In what could be the first case in which a worker […]
When employees call in sick and say they’ll be out for a few days with a cold, you may not give it much thought. But you probably need to pay more attention-especially if absenteeism is a problem in your organization-because a recent U.S. Department of Labor opinion suggests that workers’ time off could qualify as […]
An employee has been copying pornographic images off the Internet and showing them to co-workers. Another has been using company e-mail to distribute racist jokes. And several others have downloaded some hot new software onto their office PCs-violating federal copyright laws. It’s bad enough these employees are surfing the Net instead of working. But you […]
You know that inappropriate comments or behavior in the workplace can put you on the hook for big sexual harassment damages. But in a new twist, a law firm employee has won more than a quarter-million dollars because her boss used her to help keep his out-of-the-office, extramarital affair a secret. The jury’s award shows […]
Although health benefits for employees’ domestic partners are becoming more common, many small to mid-sized employers have had trouble finding an insurance company willing to provide the coverage. Several new developments, though, may make it easier for you to extend these benefits to your workers. But there could also be a serious downside for employees […]
A California court of appeal has ruled that when making personnel decisions, you can give preference to employees with lower salaries over those with higher ones as long as you do so for financial reasons. This is true even though it may result in your older workers being more negatively impacted. Despite the new ruling, […]