Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
We recently got hit with a “negligent retention” suit and want to revamp our policies. We now know that we can be liable if we find out something bad about an employee but keep him or her on anyway, and then the employee does something to a client. Just how bad does that something have […]
Is it a good idea to stay in touch with employees who have left the organization in the hope that we can hire them back? How To Survive an Employee Lawsuit: 10 Tips for Success With lawsuits against employers becoming ever more common—and jury verdicts skyrocketing—your risk of getting sued has increased dramatically […]
I’ve been reading about how important it is from a legal standpoint to give accurate performance appraisals, and when I look over ours, I know we’re not doing that—basically everyone is “good” or “excellent,” even though managers complain about poor workers. I know we’re going to get in trouble if we fire any of these […]
The Internal Revenue Service has released cost-of-living adjustments for contributions to employee retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans, as well as profit-sharing, SIMPLE, and SEP plans. For information on the new limits, go to the IRS website. 10 Tips for Effective, Legal Performance Appraisals Don’t let your performance appraisals fall by the wayside. […]
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach H-2B cap of 33,000 H-2B workers for the first six months of fiscal year 2007 (FY 2007). The H-2B visa program allows U.S. employers to request foreign workers to fill a one-time, peak load, intermittent, or […]
IBM has agreed to pay $65 million to settle a class action lawsuit charging the computer firm with misclassifying employees as exempt from overtime. In particular, the suit alleges, IBM incorrectly classified technical services professionals and information technology specialists as exempt, even though those positions don’t qualify for exemption under California or federal wage and […]
In a victory for unions, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld California’s “union neutrality” law that curtails the right of certain employers receiving state funds to use this money to deter union organizing.
Do I have to notify an employee before I change her status from exempt to nonexempt? For various legal and practical reasons, you should give notice in this circumstance. Two of those reasons: 1) Employers are required to keep records of a nonexempt employee’s hours worked each day, which typically means that nonexempt […]
What can we do to get our supervisors and managers to pay attention to documentation? We’re ending up too often with too little documentation to support our discipline and terminations.
We have a delicate situation that comes up from time to time. We hire service representatives for work at our customer service desk. We want to be fair in our hiring, but last week we had someone with a large scar on her face apply. We’re concerned that our customers will be put off by […]