Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Managers are often tempted to “sugar coat” the reasons an employee is terminated for poor performance, particularly when hard economic times support the contention. But, according to attorney Allen M. Kato, counsel at the San Francisco office of law firm Fenwick & West, LLP, this could turn very sour if the employee is inclined to […]
This month, the real news is about what employment-related bills Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t sign. The most notable bill struck down by the Governor is S.B. 242, which would have made it unlawful for employers to discriminate against an employee based on the employee’s primary language, or to ban employees from speaking any language in […]
H1N1 (“Swine”) flu vaccination trials are underway in the United States, and so far, it appears that there are no major side effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That’s the good news. The bad news for employers is that the vaccinations likely won’t be available for distribution to most adults through employee health […]
In the aftermath of layoffs affecting businesses over the last two years, many of those employees who are lucky enough to have kept their jobs are feeling a little less lucky these days. Increased workloads, combined with looming fears of even more layoffs, has left many employees feeling burnt out.
Under California law, employees must be allowed to view any personnel record that relates to an employee complaint or grievance, or that relate to their job performance. Employers are required to permit employees:
Can you scrap the results of a job qualification test if you discover after administering it that the test may be racially biased? The U.S. Supreme Court is considering this issue right now.
An $850,000 settlement was recently announced between United Airlines and the San Francisco office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the proceeds of which will be paid out to a class of United’s disabled employees. The settlement resolves a case filed by the EEOC alleging that United’s overtime policies disproportionately denied disabled employees opportunities […]
California law provides broad protection to employees who are whistleblowers. But how do you know when an employee is blowing the whistle? And what should you do once the whistle has been blown?
Recognizing that a tough economy requires greater flexibility, California recently amended Labor Code Section 511, the law that governs how employers may implement alternative work week (AWW) schedules. In addition to weekly overtime, California employers are required to pay nonexempt employees daily overtime if an employee works more than eight hours in a day. An […]
If you’re not yet familiar with the term “family responsibility discrimination” (FRD), get ready—chances are, you’ll be hearing it a lot in the future. Although related to both sex and pregnancy discrimination, the term encompasses the broader idea that employers are biased against new parents/primary family care providers.