Articles

Employment law often calls to mind Horace Greeley’s saying about common sense being quite uncommon.  Say, for example, you run a hotel.  You don’t want your staff hanging around the pool during their breaks and annoying the guests.  So you publish a rule that reads:  “The hotel and its facilities are designed for the enjoyment of our guests.  If you wish to use the guest facilities during nonworking hours, you need to obtain prior approval from your manager.”  Problem solved, right?

As of Monday, December 31, 20012,  Maine has adopted a new standard for who can be considered an independent contractor for Workers' Compensation, unemployment insurance and other purposes.

In 2007, when I first entered the realm of recruiting, I joined a team that lived and breathed by phone sourcing. These professionals were the cool cats, the smooth talkers, the ones that could infiltrate the switchboards of any company, dance past the gatekeeper, and discover and recruit candidates, all while eating at their desk.

Happy New Year

Our Wishes for you this year:

In an effort to protect the privacy of consumer information and reduce the risk of fraud and identity theft, a new federal rule is requiring businesses to take appropriate measures to dispose of sensitive information derived from consumer reports.

California Gov. Jerry Brown used the five major social media platforms to announce the signing of bills aimed at protecting users from prying employers.

Assembly Bill 1844 and Senate Bill 1349 prohibit employers and universities from requiring that applicants give up email and social media account passwords according to a statement released by Gov. Brown Thursday.

If this made-up award makes you feel good about yourself, then you are on your way to understanding gamification, a business trend — some would say fad — that aims to infuse otherwise mundane activities with the excitement and instant feedback of video games.

Commission Establishes Priorities for Enforcement and Strategies for Integrating Agency Responsibilities

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently approved a ** Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) to establish national enforcement priorities and better integrate enforcement responsibilities. The SEP passed 3-1 with bipartisan support.

When there is a survey of CEOs and they say their HR functions are not doing the right things, could it be that we are doing the right things but they don’t like what we do?  There are some aspects of HR that are almost sacred.  We have to do our bit, primarily on employment issues, to ensure the company operates within the law and its reputation and legal vulnerability is protected.  

U.S. tax authorities warned on Wednesday that as many as 100 million taxpayers - far more than previously estimated - could face refund delays if law makers' " fiscal cliff" negotiations fa il to fix th e alternative minimum tax (AMT) before year-end.

In the growing realm of mobile news, men and the more highly educated emerge as more engaged news consumers, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, in collaboration with The Economist Group. These findings parallel, for the most part, demographic patterns of general news consumption.

A lawsuit that raised this issue has been settled out of court, leaving a couple of questions unanswered.

FORTUNE -- Around this time last year, you may recall, the blogosphere was buzzing over the curious case of PhoneDog LLC v. Kravitz. The mobile device and app review site sued former employee Noah Kravitz in federal court, claiming that, when Kravitz quit and took 17,000 Twitter followers with him, he was in effect stealing a client list.

Many who lost middle-class jobs during the recession are taking low-paying positions. Employees and activist groups are pushing for a living wage.

NEW YORK — Before the recession, Amie Crawford was an interior designer, earning $50,000 a year patterning baths and cabinets for architectural firms.
Now, she's a "team member" at the Protein Bar in Chicago, where she makes $8.50 an hour, slightly more than minimum wage.

This afternoon we continued our family tradition and attended a performance by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra who introduced a new show entitled the Lost Christmas Eve. The center piece of the performance was a story of a business man who years earlier had the unfortunate luck of losing his wife during child birth and having a supposedly disabled child who he essentially disowned.

Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act

This fact sheet provides general information to help determine whether interns must be paid the minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act for the services that they provide to “for-profit” private sector employers.

We’re not sure some of them are even on the drawing board, but they’d be great to see

As the old year winds down a sense of hope arises that the hints and inklings of new products and services that have been leaking out over the past months may actually materialize in the New Year.

This is the time of year when children of all ages create a list for Santa. These lists consist of “wants” and “nice to haves” but not always “what’s really needed.”

This year I’ve created a list of “what’s really needed” for every owner and leader. These items are for those who are already successful and wish to maintain that success; for those that desire more success; and for those who want their employees, vendors and clients to be affiliated with a dynamic and growing organization.

A cyber fraud campaign targeting U.S. brokerages and banks is a “credible threat,” and early attacks have infected at least 500 accounts with software that could help thieves steal money, according to a report * released today.

Although the Rolling Stones famously sung “you can’t always get what you want,” that sentiment increasingly seems to not necessarily apply to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).