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| Employers can fire workers
found to have used medical marijuana even if it was legally prescribed, the California Supreme Court
ruled in another setback for California in its increasingly rancorous clash with federal law over
medical pot use. The high court upheld a small Sacramento telecommunications company's firing of a
man who flunked a company-ordered drug test. |
| (Source: USA Today (free reg. req'd),
2008-01-24) |
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| Patching up injured workers
and sending them back to work after some time off and physical rehabilitation may be fine if they
have ordinary jobs, but if they routinely work longer hours or are assigned to evening or night
shifts, it may be asking for trouble, a new study finds. When those employees are injured on the
job, the study says, the medical professionals involved in their treatment may need to think about
easing them back into the workplace. |
| (Source: The New York Times (free reg. req'd),
2008-01-29) |
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| Whether the work is picking
tomatoes on a farm or pounding nails at a construction site, Indiana relies on cheap and plentiful
immigrant labor -- legal and illegal -- to do business, but as Indiana lawmakers debate a tough new
illegal immigration bill, the loss of up to 85,000 undocumented workers would have a far-reaching
impact on Hoosiers. Without a reliable immigrant work force, said Kent Yeager, public policy
director for Indiana Farm Bureau, producers of fruits and vegetables, livestock and dairy will be
forced to look elsewhere to find workers -- and may even shift their operations to other
countries. |
| (Source: Indianapolis Star,
2008-01-29) |
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| Frustrated job hunters
sometimes call with complaints about pre-employment background checks that include credit
investigations. But credit checks are a legal and in some cases appropriate part of pre-employment
investigations, and there's only a glimmer of a chance credit checks might be considered
discriminatory. |
| (Source: Miami Herald (free reg. req'd),
2008-01-28) |
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| Many companies have no plans
this year to disclose performance goals that determine the compensation of top executives, despite
increasing pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission to do so. In survey results by
Watson Wyatt, a corporate compensation and human resources consulting firm, 31 percent of 135 large,
publicly traded companies said they do not expect to reveal these goals in their 2008 proxy
statements, and 27 percent are unsure whether they will. |
| (Source: CFO.com, 2008-01-24) |
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| Mayors from across the country
said that Congress is unlikely to act on the nation's immigration problems this year and blasted
lawmakers for what they called irresponsible procrastination. "This country is in an economic,
public safety and a social crisis because immigration hasn't been addressed at the level that it
needs to be addressed at -- and that's at Congress," said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. |
| (Source: The Washington Post (free reg. req'd),
2008-01-25) |
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| Even as IBM Corp. reports
record profits, thousands of its U.S. employees are staring at pay cuts. It's the result of IBM's
response to a lawsuit in which the company was accused of illegally withholding overtime pay from
some technical employees. IBM settled the case for $65 million in 2006 and has now decided that it
needs to reclassify 7,600 technical-support workers as eligible for overtime. |
| (Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune (free reg. req'd), 2008-01-23) |
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| Florida Gulf Coast University
may have to pay as much as $650,000 as part of a settlement with a former dean who claimed age and
gender discrimination. The university will also have to conduct training sessions with faculty and
staff and report any discrimination complaints in the next four years to the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, which joined the lawsuit. |
| (Source: The News-Press, 2008-01-25) |
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| Senators will renew efforts to
make New Jersey the third state to let workers take paid leave to care for either a sick relative or
new child, though businesses remain fiercely opposed to the proposal. The Senate budget committee is
scheduled to consider legislation that would let workers take up to six weeks paid leave from
work. |
| (Source: Newsday, 2008-01-27) |
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| Tami
Earnhart |
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has always been a very complex law. This past Monday,
January 28, 2008, the FMLA became more complex. President Bush signed into law a bill that contained
the first substantive changes to the FMLA since its enactment. The law amends the FMLA to provide
two new forms of leave – leave for a family member to care for an injured service member and family
leave due to call to active duty in the armed forces. Employers with 50 or more employees should
become familiar with these new forms of leave and implement the appropriate changes to their
policies.
Read more about the FMLA
amendments.
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Questionable Claims?
If you question an employee's worker's compensation claim, make sure your insurance adjuster
understands the reasons why. Call the adjuster and suggest a conference call with your worker's
compensation attorney before any decisions are made.
Please contact Ann
Stewart if you have any worker's comp questions.
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