Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Do you know when you’re required to provide employees with meal and rest breaks? Are you following the rules? If not, you could be headed toward an expensive legal battle. And a recent spate of wage and hour lawsuits charging employers with violating meal and rest break provisions is focusing attention on these rules.
A new California appeal court ruling underscores how critical it is to take prompt remedial action when you receive a sexual harassment complaint. The case also addresses co-worker liability for harassment under California law.
Several African-American employees at the Naval Aviation Depot North Island in San Diego sued their employer, claiming that African-American employees at the NADNI were denied promotions over a several-year period. The Ninth Circuit said the employees couldn’t sue over many of the promotions because the employees had failed to file complaints about those promotions within […]
If two employees get into a scuffle at work and one is hurt, you might assume that the injured employee’s only recourse against you is to file a workers’ compensation claim. But a San Diego jury’s staggering verdict demonstrates that if you don’t respond appropriately to an altercation, you could find yourself on the losing […]
Manuel Torres installed tires for Parkhouse Tire Service in San Diego. One day while he was working on his knees, Parkhouse sales representative Roy Naas sneaked up behind Torres, grabbed his back-support belt, lifted him off the ground and dropped him back on his knees. Torres suffered a serious back injury and couldn’t return to […]
San Diego police officer Stephen Molnar was subpoenaed to testify in court on a work-related matter on a day he wasn’t scheduled to report for duty. While driving his personal car from home to the courthouse, he was injured in an automobile accident. Molnar filed a workers’ compensation claim, which was ultimately denied. We’ll explain […]
A California Court of Appeal has upheld a decision to deny disability retirement benefits to a San Diego city utility worker. Before he started working for the city, Charles Alesi injured his knee several times while jet-skiing and in a beach football game. He then reinjured the knee twice at work and once more while […]
Corporate Express Delivery Systems Inc. will pay a total of $9.75 million to 4,300 former and current messengers in Hayward, Los Angeles and San Diego who claimed they were underpaid. The messengers, who were compensated on commission, charged that the company failed to pay them minimum wage or overtime and violated rules on expense reimbursement. […]
John Blackstock, an apprentice electrician with Rick’s Electric Inc., a San Diego electrical contractor, was seriously hurt when he received a 227-volt shock while working on electrical cables. Foreman Glen Woodmansee believed the cables weren’t energized, but didn’t check before assigning Blackstock to the project. Plus, Blackstock hadn’t been trained to work on live equipment. […]
As of January 1, 1998, most private-sector, non-union employees will be entitled to overtime only after 40 hours in a week rather than eight hours in a day. The industries affected are manufacturing; public housekeeping; professional, technical and clerical; mercantile; and transportation. If you’re covered, you need to be prepared. First, if you haven’t yet […]