Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The California Supreme Court has decided that its landmark ruling in 2000 that required mandatory arbitration agreements to contain certain fairness protections for employees isn’t just limited to discrimination and harassment claims. We’ll explain the court’s new opinion.
Federal lawmakers are currently debating a variety of bills that could affect the workplace. Here’s a rundown of what’s on the table.
Under the state and federal family and medical leave laws, you must continue health insurance for employees who are out on leave. But do you know the rules for how much of their premiums you can require employees to pay while they’re off?
Chris Schultz, a longtime maintenance worker at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Illinois, took 12 weeks of FMLA leave over the course of a year to care for his ill parents. His father had Alzheimer’s disease and his mother had heart problems and diabetes. During this time period, the hospital implemented a new evaluation […]
Suppose your company is undergoing a merger, and employees are offered a bonus for promising to stay on for a certain period of time—perhaps three or six months—during the rocky transition period. Do you have to pay the full bonus to an employee who goes out on family leave for some of that period? A […]
A newly signed piece of legislation that has drawn much attention—S.B. 1661—makes California the first state in the nation to have a paid family leave program. Fortunately, you’ll have time to get ready because employees can’t begin to collect the family leave pay benefits until July 1, 2004. To help you get started, we’ve laid […]
Mix-ups with leave-related paperwork can bring on expensive headaches, as one employer recently discovered. Sam Duty, a mechanic and welder at Norton-Alcoa Proppants, injured his neck at work and took seven months of medical leave. But eventually a dispute erupted when it turned out that an error in the company’s FMLA paperwork gave Duty more […]
The federal Labor Department has issued a memorandum clarifying its position on the rights of returning uniformed service members to take family and medical leave. The department says that active duty time must be counted toward these workers’ eligibility to take time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act. In particular, employees generally become […]
In 1998, Wells Fargo Bank merged with Northwest Bank. Under Wells Fargo’s sick leave policy before the merger, employees earned one sick day a month, and unused sick days could be carried to the next year. At the time, employees also earned a certain amount of paid vacation days a year, which could be carried […]
A new ruling from the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals focuses on a little-known provision of the Family and Medical Leave Act that permits employees to take leave to provide psychological comfort and assistance to family members with serious physical or mental illnesses. We”ll explain the court’s ruling.