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Compensation & Benefits

Does the Port Authority pay female attorneys less than men?

11/24/2010

The EEOC has sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, alleging it pays male lawyers much more than women who perform the same work. On behalf of three plaintiffs, the EEOC seeks class certification for all female attorneys affected by the allegedly discriminatory pay policies.

Management exemption looks at duties, not time

11/24/2010

Retail managers are generally responsible for everything that happens in their stores. But they often spend most of their time doing the same work that hourly employees do. Even so, they may qualify as exempt employees under the FLSA. It’s the quality of the management work they do that counts, not the number of hours they spend doing it.

Can we withhold pay if employees are late in completing and submitting time cards?

11/19/2010
Q. We have two employees who regularly fail to turn in their time cards on a timely basis. Can we hold off on paying them until they submit their time cards? Can we delay payment until the next pay period?

Are use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies legal?

11/19/2010
Q. My company has a “use it or lose it” vacation policy. Is it lawful for employees who have not taken their vacations at the end of the calendar year to lose them if we have given our employees advance notice of our policy?

What makes someone ineligible for unemployment?

11/19/2010
Q. We want to fire a bad worker, and we don’t want to take an unemployment comp hit. Under California law, when can a terminated worker be denied unemployment benefits?

Car washes accused of dirty dealings on worker pay, breaks

11/19/2010
The state Office of the Attorney General has filed a lawsuit charging eight Southern California car washes with stiffing workers out of wages, failing to pay the minimum wage, reneging on overtime pay and denying legally mandated breaks.

LAPD learns OT is expensive, retaliation costs way more

11/19/2010
A federal jury has awarded approximately $4 million to a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who claimed the LAPD fired him in retaliation for testifying in a wage-and-hour case.

Contract talks stuck? Put health care on the table

11/19/2010
News to note if you work in a unionized workplace: Health benefits are still a legitimate bargaining chip. Members of the University Professional & Technical Employees Union recently agreed to shoulder more of the health insurance burden in exchange for better performance-based pay.

California Supreme Court upholds state furloughs

11/19/2010
For a while, there was some doubt that outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could legally force unionized state employees to accept furloughs ordered to ease California’s budget crisis. Now the California Supreme Court has ruled that the furloughs were legal.

‘Disabled’ person recover? Demand proof he can’t work

11/19/2010
Some health conditions become less disabling because of better medicines or other factors. That means that an employee collecting disability payments under a company disability plan may in fact recover enough to warrant cutting off benefits.