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| Seven states -- California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon and Washington -- have recently restricted the practice of allowing employers to make hiring decisions based, in part, on applicants' credit scores, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The laws generally contain exemptions for some positions, such as those responsible for handling large amounts of cash. |
| (Source: USA Today (free reg. req'd), 2012-03-05) |
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| March madness is right around the corner, and companies around the country know some of their employees will be basketball-distracted. A productivity expert says bosses may want to embrace March madness. |
| (Source: KSDK, 2012-03-07) |
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| A federal judge ruled that the National Labor Relations Board can require most private businesses to put up posters informing workers they have a legal right to form a union, but U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson limited how the board can enforce the requirement. She said simply failing to display the new NLRB poster isn't automatically a legal violation without other evidence of anti-union conduct. |
| (Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2012-03-03) |
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| As summer intern season draws near, many employers are doing away with unpaid internships or converting them to paid programs amid lawsuits that claim interns should have been compensated for their work, labor lawyers say. |
| (Source: USA Today (free reg. req'd), 2012-03-07) |
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| If you think privacy settings on your Facebook and Twitter accounts guarantee future employers or schools can't see your private posts, guess again. Employers and colleges find the treasure-trove of personal information hiding behind password-protected accounts and privacy walls just too tempting, and some are demanding full access from job applicants and student athletes. |
| (Source: MSNBC, 2012-03-06) |
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| A debate over paid sick leave is intensifying around the country, amid concerns that economic pressures are prompting workers to place their financial security above their health. Many people will go to work while ill -- and even send their children to school sick -- because they can't afford to stay home, supporters of paid sick time say. |
| (Source: The Wall Street Journal, 2012-03-01) |
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| While there is still much discussion about whether and how incentives really work for engaging employees in wellness programs, most companies still plan on increasing the dollar value of the incentives they offer. That's according to a survey of 139 employers from Fidelity and the National Business Group on Health to analyze the growth of health-improvement programs in the workplace, which usually entail condition-management services (e.g., managing insulin treatments), lifestyle-management services (e.g., weight-loss advice) and health-risk management services (e.g., onsite flu shots). |
| (Source: BenefitNews.com, 2012-03-05) |
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| While 99 percent of U.S. companies with 200 or more employees offered health insurance in 2011, just 57 percent of those with fewer than 50 workers offered benefits, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, but times are about to change for small businesses and their workers. In 2014, the Affordable Care Act will require them to provide insurance or give their workers money to buy it themselves on state-run exchanges. |
| (Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune (free reg. req'd), 2012-03-04) |
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| Time-crunched employees are increasingly looking to their jobs to provide opportunities for the good deeds that they don't have the hours for outside of work, and companies are responding, but karmic satisfaction is only part of the payoff. Volunteering offers participants the opportunity to strengthen their skills, broaden their networks, break out of a career rut, and find new meaning in their job, all of which can rebound to employers in the form of increased engagement and retention. |
| (Source: HR.BLR.com, 2012-03-05) |
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| Ani Chopourian lost track of how many complaints she filed during the two years she worked as a physician assistant at Sacramento's Mercy General Hospital. In a stunning rebuke of the hospital's side of the story, a jury awarded Chopourian $168 million in damages, believed to be the largest judgment for a single victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history. |
| (Source: Los Angeles Times (free reg. req'd), 2012-03-02) |
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| A U.S. district judge ordered New York City to pay $128 million in to firefighters who allege the city used an entrance exam that deliberately sought to keep African-Americans and Latino Americans off the force. The judge also ordered the FDNY to hire 293 black and Latino applicants. |
| (Source: CNN.com, 2012-03-08) |
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| Mario Batali, the celebrity TV chef and New York restaurant owner, was sued and accused of cheating workers of part of their tips, as well as failing to pay overtime and the minimum wage. He and his associate Joseph Bastianich agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle the class-action lawsuit, according to court papers. |
| (Source: Bloomberg, 2012-03-08) |
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Skip Adams
Employers across the U.S. are learning costly lessons from inattention to their employee meal period policies and practices. Plaintiffs' lawyers have voracious appetites for filing class action lawsuits involving interrupted or missed meal periods. In recent years, those lawsuits have resulted in several multi-million dollar verdicts against companies. To avoid this kind of liability, employers must: understand what the law requires; audit and, where necessary, correct their meal period policies; and actively monitor their employees' meal period and timekeeping practices.
Read full article online.
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Over the past year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has aggressively publicized complaints and settlements involving employers who have disciplined their employees for engaging in various types of social media activity. During this webinar, legal experts from across the U.S. will discuss the effects of the NLRB’s latest guidance on employers, what can be done to prepare and implement a policy that will withstand a legal challenge, and how employers can successfully defend a claim of wrongful termination for violations of the policy.
As part of the Employment Law Alliance, Ice Miller is able to extend this invitation-only webinar to our clients. To register, visit: www.employmentlawalliance.com and click the "register now" link in the webinar box on the right side of your screen. |
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Promoting Employee Health Slims Down Comp Costs
We have long advocated the importance of the relationship between safety and worker's compensation programs – fewer accidents means lower worker's compensation costs. While it seems intuitive that healthy workers present a lower risk of injury, and once injured, recover more quickly than their out-of-shape coworkers, many employers maintain separate structures for risk management and benefits management. New research, an aging workforce, developing law, tight budgets and anxiety about healthcare reform dictate that employers connect the dots between safety and wellness.
The Obesity 2010 NCCI Research Brief confirms that work-related injuries to obese workers cost more to treat and result in permanent disabilities more often than injuries to healthy workers. An Indiana court decision requiring an employer to provide weight-reduction surgery as part of the treatment for a work-related back injury raises concerns for employers about providing treatment for other pre-existing personal employee health problems. Proactive workplace wellness programs could alleviate some of the cost of addressing employee health problems when a workplace injury arises.
For more information on employee safety and wellness programs, please contact an Ice Miller Workers’ Compensation attorney. |
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