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Employment Law

Citigroup to pay $33 million in gender-Bias settlement

04/18/2008
Citigroup will pay $33 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by three female brokers who worked in the Santa Barbara office of Smith Barney, a Citigroup unit. As many as 2,500 former and current Smith Barney female brokers may end up sharing in the settlement pot …

Schwarzenegger vetoes child care worker negotiation bill

04/18/2008
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed S.B. 867, a state bill that would have allowed child care workers to organize for the purpose of negotiating with California agencies. Specifically, the bill would have allowed the workers to negotiate reimbursement rates and licensing issues with the state …

Court voids grocery worker retention ordinance

04/18/2008
A Superior Court judge recently voided a 2005 ordinance that required large supermarkets to retain workers following an ownership change …

Individuals cannot be held liable for retaliation claims

04/18/2008
The California Supreme Court held in 1998 that individual supervisors and managers are not personally liable for discrimination under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Now the court has also ruled that individual supervisors and managers may not be held financially responsible for retaliation claims …

A dim-Witted way to cut your organization’s health costs

04/17/2008
Do some of your employees’ spouses or children have serious (and expensive) health troubles? It may be tempting to offer suggestions about less costly treatments—or even to send that employee packing. But don’t do it. As this new ruling shows, it’s illegal to discriminate against employees based on their relationship with a disabled person …

The HR I.Q. Test: May ’08

04/17/2008
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

New FMLA military leave: Who can take it?

04/17/2008
Q. Does the new FMLA law for injured soldiers also apply to service members who were injured during past wars? And does the person have to be 100% disabled for their family members to be eligible for leave? — C.T., Missouri …

Can you set work-time minimums for exempt staff?

04/17/2008

Q. All our department managers are salaried. When they’re hired, they agree in writing to work at least 50 hours per week. If they miss a day or work only 45 hours in a week, can we deduct from their salaries? — B.L., Florida  …

Must we offer time off as an ADA accommodation?

04/17/2008

Q. We employ fewer than 50 employees. What’s our obligation under the FMLA or the ADA to bring back an employee who has missed lots of work? We want to lay her off. Can we?

You don’t have to pay for all employee training

04/15/2008

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to compensate employees for any time spent on the job that benefits the employer. There are, however, some exceptions. For example, if employees use their own time to study materials that will qualify them for promotions, that time generally doesn’t have to be paid.