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Hiring

What are the rules for unpaid internships?

04/19/2012

Q. Our company has received a number of résumés from college students interested in working as unpaid interns for us during the summer months. Would hiring such unpaid internships violate federal or state laws?

Court: Professional licensure can require fingerprinting

04/19/2012
A federal court has upheld a Cali­for­­nia state requirement that nurses who want to renew or apply for a professional license must submit a set of fingerprints along with their applications. The prints are needed to conduct criminal background checks.

If you hire your kids, be the boss, not the parent

04/17/2012
It’s almost summer, and some lucky kids will be working in their families’ businesses. Sole proprietors and partnerships where both spouses are partners can get some special payroll tax breaks for hiring their kids. But, regardless of your business structure, you must follow a few rules to keep the IRS out of your hair.

Library of Skill-Based Interview Questions

04/12/2012
In addition to giving job-specific tests, the best way to tell if applicants carry the skills to perform specific tasks is to ask very direct questions about how they’ve used each skill in the past. Here are nearly 200 sample interview questions that hiring managers can use to spot the presence of important “soft” skills …

Management’s independent review trumps supervisor’s hidden discrimination

04/12/2012
When upper management rubber-stamps an employment decision made by a supervisor who discriminates, the employer is liable for the discrimination. But if higher-ups independently review the situation before ratifying the decision, the employer isn’t bound by its discriminating subordinate’s wrongdoing.

Report alleges state didn’t investigate hospital head

04/12/2012
The state Department of Human Services failed to check educational and employment references for the director of the state’s largest mental hospital, according to a report by Minnesota Public Radio.

Court: To allege promotion bias, you must have actually applied for the job

04/09/2012
Except in very limited circumstances, an individual must actually apply for a position before he can challenge the decision to hire someone else.

EEOC tries to clarify rules on H.S. diploma requirement

04/06/2012
After the EEOC’s informal discussion letter about ­employers’ use of high school diplomas as a hiring prerequisite “caused significant commentary and conjecture,” the EEOC decided last month to issue additional guidance to help clarify the issue.

FDNY’s discrimination tab could reach $65M

04/03/2012
A federal judge has called for lawyers to serve as “special masters” to decide how to allocate money for minority job applicants who were unfairly denied jobs with the Fire Department of the City of New York. The DOJ filed suit on behalf of minorities who complained they were not hired because of their race.

Do we have to post all jobs internally?

03/29/2012
Q. We rarely post high-level management jobs internally. Must all jobs be posted internally so someone can’t file suit claiming “pre-selection” or that he never had a chance to apply?