• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Kaiser settles wage-and-hour suit for $5.4 million

12/24/2008

The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has agreed to settle a class-action wage-and-hour lawsuit brought by 770 California employees. Under the terms of the settlement, Kaiser agreed to pay $5.4 million, $3.7 million of which will go directly to the class members who claimed they were misclassified …

Morgan Stanley will pay $16M to settle race bias suit

12/24/2008

A federal judge has given final approval to the settlement of a race discrimination lawsuit brought by financial advisors against Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. The settlement establishes a $16 million fund, of which $14 million will be divided among class members who submitted claims.

EEOC reaches settlement in racial harassment case

12/24/2008

The EEOC has settled a lawsuit it filed against Texas-based Cadit Co., which was doing work for the San Francisco Municipal Railway. The agency said Cadit allowed a foreman to harass a Chinese-American welder.

What are California’s requirements for employee resting & eating facilities?

12/24/2008

Q. Are there any specific requirements regarding the types of resting and eating facilities California employers must provide for their workers?

What happens if we fail to provide COBRA notice upon termination?

12/24/2008

Q. What kinds of penalties or liability does an employer face if it fails to provide notice of COBRA coverage upon termination of an employee?

What are the risks of continuing a no-fault attendance policy?

12/24/2008

Q. Our company’s attendance policy calls for issuing a warning when an employee has three absences. Five absences result in a suspension, and seven absences result in termination. Can we continue this policy?

Track whom you discipline to avoid litigation

12/24/2008

Employees who are fired after breaking work rules often allege that they were targeted because of some protected characteristic like gender, age, race or ethnicity. The best way to counter such claims is to know beforehand whether your organization is being tougher on some employees who belong to a protected class while letting others slide.

Court not sold that SEPTA is ‘arm of the state’

12/24/2008

A bus driver recently sued the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), claiming she and all others like her had been paid less than they were entitled to. SEPTA tried to get out of the lawsuit by saying it was an arm of the state, and therefore immune from Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

N.J.’s pension strategy: ‘Promise to pay up later, OK?’

12/24/2008

Tough times call for tough measures. To cope with the effects of the state’s $1.2 billion budget shortfall on its pension obligations, Gov. Jon Corzine has suggested a time-honored, if not terribly innovative, remedy: an IOU.

Even if offer is for ‘at-will’ job, beware making promises you’re not prepared to keep

12/24/2008

Before you make a solid job offer and induce an applicant to make major changes in order to accept the job, consider this: If you end up not being able to follow through on the offer, you may end up sued for breach of promise—in legal terms, called promissory estoppel