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Wages & Hours

$2.8 million will cover Kmart settlement; attorneys are extra

11/25/2008

Judge Otis Wright II of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently approved a $2.8 million settlement between retailer Kmart and workers who claimed they were not compensated for meal and rest breaks.

What’s the new California law concerning wages for computer professionals?

11/25/2008

Q. We employ a number of computer programmers at our Northern California facility. Is there a new law regarding compensation for these exempt employees?

Lawsuit: Lehman bankruptcy stiffed riffed Jersey workers

11/25/2008

Miron Berenshteyn, a former computer programmer for Lehman Brothers in Jersey City, has filed a $5 million lawsuit alleging the company violated the federal and New Jersey WARN Acts when it laid off more than 100 workers in September.

Ever send workers to California? Read on!

11/25/2008

Do you have employees who live and work in your home state, but whose jobs sometimes take them to California? Then you may be making a big overtime mistake if you pay them as as usual. A federal court has just issued a key ruling on California’s generous OT law.

California labor laws apply to nonresidents who perform work in the state, court rules

11/21/2008

If your organization sends employees into California to do work, take note of an important new 9th Circuit ruling.

Must we pay for hours lost due to power failure?

11/21/2008

Q. We recently had a power outage and called employees who weren’t in yet to tell them to come in when the power was back up. We then gave these people a chance to make up the lost time by working late or using paid time off. Do we have to pay them for the hours they missed?

U.S. Steel miner files suit; says time clock cheating workers

11/12/2008

John Zupancich, a miner who works in the Minntac Mine in Mountain Iron, has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Steel, claiming the company’s timecard practices rob workers of as much as two hours of pay each week.

What are the rules regarding owner pay in a startup company?

11/12/2008

Q. We are a startup company seeking investors, and we currently have limited cash flow. The company’s founders own the company on a 50/50 basis and are serving as the company’s officers. We can’t afford to pay them, and they are willing to work for free as part of their investment in building the company. Can we do that?

Give all employees a shot at advancement

11/12/2008

If some of your managers and supervisors steer career and business opportunities to favored subordinates and keep others from finding out about them, watch out. If those missed opportunities wind up depriving employees of potential financial rewards, that could lead to discrimination lawsuits.

Cutting senior staff to save salary costs? Check impact on older workers

11/10/2008

One way to reduce your labor budget is to terminate staff members who are paid the most and replace them with employees who earn less. But be careful before you implement a layoff based on seniority.