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Wages & Hours

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.

What hours can young teenagers work?

11/15/2010
Q. We have several employees who are 14 and 15 years old. Could you provide the specifics of the new regulations the U.S. Department of Labor recently issued relating to the work hours for these employees?

11 steps help make flexible work a success

11/15/2010
The DOL’s Women’s Bureau has started what it calls “a national dialogue on workplace flexibility,” and the agency is pushing employers to focus more on the work/life benefits of flex. Here are 11 steps you can take to make flex programs more successful—making work/life balance easier for your employees and improving your overall business operations:

Make choice up front: Employee or contractor?

11/11/2010

Adding staff? Decide up front if you want an employee or an independent contractor. Under the FLSA and state law, you must pay overtime to nonexempt employees. Not so for independent contractors. Make the employee-or-contractor call well before you bring someone on board. Don’t assume you can make the designation later. That usually won’t work.

Checking e-mail after hours: Should we pay?

11/11/2010
Q. Several nonexempt employees have smartphones. Do we have to pay them for the time they check work e-mail at home?

Prepare for payroll confusion in new year unless Congress takes action

11/11/2010
Unless a lame duck Congress acts by Dec. 31 to keep some of the so-called “Bush tax cuts,” tax rates will increase on Jan. 1, 2011, as pre-2001 rates go back into effect. That’s bound to upset employees who will find themselves with less take-home pay.

HR after the mid-terms: What’s Washington going to do?

11/09/2010
Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections, while Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate. With a Democrat in the White House and a divided Congress, what does that mean for the HR-related issues that have dominated the headlines for the last two years? Here’s our rundown of the likely legislative scenarios.

NYC dollar stores settle FLSA complaint

11/05/2010
The owners of 11 New York City dollar stores will pay more than $485,000 to settle complaints they violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying workers less than minimum wage, and failing to pay time-and-a-half for overtime hours.

Manhattan’s swank Del Posto restaurant sued for lost tips

11/05/2010
A group of 27 current and former employees at celebrity chef Mario Batali’s Del Posto restaurant are suing the restaurant because they say managers illegally skimmed tip-pool funds meant for service workers.