Category: HR Management & Compliance

There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.

Pressure To Resign Following Postpartum Depression? Bad Idea

A spa director sued for pregnancy discrimination after she allegedly was pressured to resign following her leave for postpartum depression. The employer asked the court to compel arbitration in accordance with an arbitration provision in the employment application. Was the arbitration agreement enforceable?

Online—Can’t Prohibit the Bad, Can’t Allow the Good?

Is that right? You can’t prohibit employees from saying bad things online, yet you also can’t allow them to say good things? To some extent, that’s true, says attorney Peter Lowe. Lowe, who is a partner at Brann & Isaacson in Lewiston, Maine, offered his tips at the BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently […]

FMLA/CFRA Versus Other Leaves: Key Differences

In a CER webinar titled “FMLA, ADA, and California Workers’ Comp Overlap: Overcoming New Compliance Conflicts,” Jennifer K. Achtert and Todd B. Scherwin outlined some of the differences between the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)/ California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and other leaves. In particular, they compared FMLA/CFRA to the Americans with Disabilities Act […]

Discipline and Termination: Near-Surefire Lawsuits

In yesterday’s CED, we covered “almost smoking gun” mistakes; today, more mistakes your managers make, plus an introduction to a helpful resource that will automate an important recordkeeping duty and take it off your plate once and for all.

Airline Fee Unbundling Challenges Travel Managers

The airline industry is helping to shift more of the cost of business travel away from the booking phase — the stage at which costs can be managed most easily — to the trip itself when expenses are incurred on the fly. This creates challenges for corporate travel managers — and the federal government, which […]

Not ‘Smoking Gun’ … But Nearly As Bad

The worst-case scenario in defending against discrimination claims is the “smoking gun.” (“Too old for this job” written on a candidate’s resume, for example.) In today’s CED, several of the less outrageous mistakes that can still shoot your defense to pieces.

Key Employee: If I Take FMLA, I’m Fired???

Special from the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, Las Vegas If you are a designated key employee, you may not be able to return to work after FMLA leave, but your leave can’t be denied, says attorney Stacie Caraway, who covered key FMLA topics atBLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Las Vegas. While you […]

IRS Further Clarifies Rules on Reporting Health Plan Costs on 2012 W-2 Forms

In its latest guidance on W-2 reporting of health benefits (Notice 2012-9, issued Jan. 5) the IRS has clarified that employers need not include the cost of coverage under an employee assistance program (EAP), health reimbursement accounts (HRA), wellness program or on site-medical clinic in the reportable amount if the employer does not charge a premium […]