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Compensation & Benefits

With flu season approaching, can we force employees to stay home from work?

12/09/2008

Q. Flu season is coming and we are concerned. If employees have the flu or show flu symptoms, can we require them to stay home long enough to make sure they are no longer contagious? Would we have to pay them for time away?

Florida staffing company owes NY workers $113,000

12/09/2008

Star One Staffing, based in Coral Gables, has agreed to pay $113,000 in back wages and damages to 70 Filipino workers to settle charges brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Go ahead and settle overtime cases, but know what you’re buying when you do

12/09/2008

If an employee thinks he isn’t being properly paid for overtime, expect a lawsuit. You may be able to settle such a case—at a price. It will likely be expensive, covering attorneys’ fees as well as the lost wages. Plus, the court will carefully scrutinize the settlement to make sure it’s fair.

DOL gets free pass when suing employers for wage violations

12/09/2008

Employers, beware: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has just made it much easier for the DOL to file lawsuits against employers. All the DOL needs to do is file a complaint alleging unpaid wages.

The problem with working: having to do work

12/09/2008

Tired of working, but still need a paycheck? Keith Smith apparently found a solution to that age-old problem, if only temporarily.

Meat packer, staffing firm settle with Muslim workers

12/09/2008

St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump has agreed to pay $215,000 to a group of Somali Muslim workers to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC. The company also granted the workers an extra paid break for prayer during the second half of each shift.

3 steps to jumpstart your company’s wellness program

12/09/2008

As health insurance costs skyrocket, even as benefits dwindle, so does the trend toward employers setting up wellness programs—71% of U.S. employers offered such programs in 2008. Here’s how to make the case for establishing a wellness program in your workplace, plus initial steps to put the plan in motion.

By The Numbers: Top executive pay down 4%

12/08/2008

A cynic might say a 4% average earnings decline isn’t enough, but at least the highest-paid executives in America’s publicly traded corporations are feeling some of the pain of the financial meltdown.

Worker denied unemployment can’t keep filing claims

12/08/2008

It may seem like common sense, but it took an Ohio Court of Appeals decision to settle the question: Employees can’t keep filing unemployment compensation claims for the same discharge after they lose the first round.

Obama health plan would raise coverage, some employer costs

12/08/2008

President-elect Barack Obama has said his plan for universal health coverage would reduce health care costs and save American businesses $140 billion a year. It would do so largely by requiring big businesses to provide health insurance for their workers or else pay into a federal fund that would provide coverage.