Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Wage/hour litigation is heating up, partly because attorneys have figured out that even for small cases, in which the client-employee may get $1,000, the attorney can collect $15,000 in attorneys’ fees, says Attorney Deanna Brinkerhoff. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) litigation is heating up, and partly for that reason—it’s low-hanging fruit for plaintiffs’ attorneys. Brinkerhoff, […]
In tonight’s State of the Union Address President Obama will announce an increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10 per hour and he will call on Congress to pass a proposed similar wage increase for all workers. The morning of Jan. 28, the White House released a preview of the President’s executive […]
In Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, at least in this case, action by the employer to offer a settlement “mooted” the collection action, says Brinkerhoff. (A case is “moot” when the issue has been resolved, and the case is no longer “live.”) Brinkerhoff, who is an associate in the […]
FLSA litigation is heating up, and partly for that reason, it’s low-hanging fruit for plaintiffs’ attorneys. Brinkerhoff, who is an associate in the law firm Holland & Hart LLP in Las Vegas, offered tips on wage/hour compliance at the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Las Vegas. To add insult to injury, about 50 […]
The Wage & Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor, which enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), recovered more than $280 million in back wages for over 308,000 employees in Fiscal Year 2012. This map reflects a sampling of 2013 WHD enforcement activity—including recovery of wages and punitive damages—taken against employers in […]
The Two Problems Fentin, who is a partner in the Springfield, Massachusetts, law firm, Skoler, Abbott & Presser P.C., points out the two sometimes opposing desires of dealing with employees with chronic illnesses: Supporting the employee with chronic illness, and Managing the employee with the chronic illness. Balancing these two needs isn’t easy, Fentin admits. […]
As an HR person, you care about people, says attorney Susan Fentin. Your impulse is to help; however, if the problem is driving the business down, you may not be able to help. You need to balance these sometimes-competing interests, and that’s not often easy. What are the issues when an employee is chronically ill? […]
In yesterday’s Advisor,we learned exemption status of many specific jobs. Today, the tricky status of executive assistants, team leaders, and supervisors who perform nonexempt duties, plus we introduce the all-things-HR website, HR.BLR.com. Supervisors Who Perform Concurrent Duties Supervisors who perform both exempt and nonexempt work may still qualify as exempt employees under the law. For […]
Wage and hour is supposed to be simple, but it just refuses to be easy. Lots of jobs fall into that gray area between exempt and nonexempt. For clarification on specific jobs, we turned to BLR’s Wage & Hour Self-Audit Guide®. Athletic Trainers Athletic trainers who have successfully completed 4 academic years of preprofessional and […]
Sem, who is CPP CSC certified, is the president of Sem Security Management in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was joined by Di Ann Sanchez, PhD, SPHR, the founder and president of DAS HR Consulting LLC, at a recent webinar sponsored by BLR®. The Four Essential Components of a workplace violence (WPV) Program 1. Prevention—the most […]