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| Supreme Court justices indicated they would side with a longtime government worker who says she was fired in retaliation after she cooperated with a sexual harassment investigation. The court wrestled with whether the anti-retaliation provisions of a civil rights law apply to people who haven't themselves complained about workplace discrimination. |
| (Source: Detroit Free Press, 2008-10-08) |
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| President Bush has signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008. This law applies to all employers with 15 or more employees who are subject to Title VII (the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and will prohibit insurance providers, employers, employment agencies and labor organizations from discriminating on the basis of genetic information that may reveal an individual's predisposition to disease. |
| (Source: Californian, 2008-10-14) |
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| The decision to devote some of the $700 billion financial rescue for direct cash infusions into banks has reopened the rift over whether financial institutions that get federal help should abide by executive pay limits. Treasury officials have argued privately that banks aided this way should be exempt from the toughest executive pay restrictions in the rescue legislation passed by Congress. Some lawmakers disagree. |
| (Source: The Washington Post (free reg. req'd), 2008-10-14) |
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| A recent lawsuit against retail chain Dillard's Inc. is highlighting what some claim is a growing problem in the workplace: employers asking too much information about workers' illnesses when asked for sick leave. |
| (Source: law.com, 2008-10-13) |
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| The fight against workplace discrimination directed at overweight and obese people gained ammunition recently with a new report that says while employers might view their larger workers as lazy, antisocial and moody, they are no different than their thin counterparts. The research, from Michigan State University and Hope College, could have profound effects on hiring and firing in Michigan, the only state that makes obesity discrimination in the workplace illegal. |
| (Source: Lansing State Journal, 2008-10-13) |
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| Increased demand for feedback from younger workers is forcing some employers to rethink how they discuss employee performance. Often, the annual review just won't cut it anymore. |
| (Source: The Wall Street Journal, 2008-10-13) |
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| At least 40 states give people the right to effectively erase their criminal past by sealing or expunging some, usually minor, prior criminal convictions. But massive private electronic databases of criminal records, which are not always up to date, make some of those supposedly secret records widely available to employers and landlords. |
| (Source: ABC News, 2008-10-13) |
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| A report by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that found evidence of forged documents, fake degrees and shell companies being used in H-1B applications will likely lead to increased scrutiny of the visa petitions if the USCIS implements some of the steps it is now considering. A USCIS spokesman said that the agency is weighing a series of reforms to the H-1B application process, including the use of "independent open-source data" to obtain information about visa seekers or the companies that file the petitions on their behalf. |
| (Source: Computerworld, 2008-10-10) |
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| The top two executives at an Associated supermarket in Brooklyn were arrested on charges that they had cheated workers out of more than $300,000 and had falsified business records that they gave to state officials. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said the executives paid no wages to supermarket baggers -- who received only tips -- and paid a weekly salary of $300 to other employees who worked 70-hour weeks; the pay rate breaks down to $4.29 an hour, far less than the state's minimum wage of $7.15 an hour. |
| (Source: The New York Times (free reg. req'd), 2008-10-08) |
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| For the first time in almost a decade, the portion of workers participating in a workplace retirement plan jumped higher in 2007, but those gains may be wiped out in 2008 given that the stock market plays a big part in workers' decisions, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. In 2007, 41.5 percent of all U.S. workers took part in a retirement plan at work, up from 39.7 percent in 2006, according to the study, which measured participation in 401(k) and other defined-contribution plans as well as traditional defined-benefit pensions. |
| (Source: MarketWatch (free reg. req'd), 2008-10-09) |
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| Tami Earnhart |
Do you withhold the value of the property your employees have not returned to you from your employees' final paychecks? Do you take amounts the employee is "short" or that you assume your employee has stolen from you out of his or her paycheck? Are your employees required to pay for their uniforms or other "purchases" through a payroll deduction? Do you have an education or relocation assistance policy that requires that the employee reimburse you for a portion of the assistance out of his or her final paycheck if the employee does not stay with you for a certain length of time? If you are taking these or other "voluntary" deductions from your employees' paychecks, you need to be sure you are in compliance with the law so that you avoid claims by your employees or former employees for monetary damages.
Read more about compliance with payroll deduction statutes. |
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Low Back Pain Recovery Slow in Comp Cases
A recent British study shows that recovery from low back pain is slower than previously thought. The strongest predictor of a delayed recovery was the compensability of the claim. If the low back pain is a worker's compensation claim, chances of recovery are cut in half. What can you do to help your employees with low back pain?
- Keep in touch with the employee who is receiving disability.
- Have a light duty return to work program that is carefully tailored to the employee's needs.
- Work with your doctors to avoid the use of opiates early in the case.
- Have a program that encourages healthy lifestyles.
For details on the study visit www.thegeorgeinstitute.org.
Please contact Kathleen Shortridge or Ann Stewart if you have questions on this topic or any other worker's comp issue.
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