• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Hiring

New guidelines sound alarm on race, color bias

06/01/2006

The EEOC just revamped its guidance on racial and color discrimination in the workplace. These changes signal increased race-bias enforcement, plus more EEOC attention to "subtle" discrimination …

Tighten I-9 practices in advance of new legislation

06/01/2006

While Congress tries to hammer out the biggest immigration law changes in decades, Homeland Security is already cracking down. These developments will likely add new responsibilities and risks to your I-9 and visa practices …

Make note if using translator to complete I-9

06/01/2006

Q. Is there any way to obtain I-9 forms pre-printed in Spanish? —A.B., California

Immigration: Congress weighs changes; feds threaten crackdown

06/01/2006

Immigration solidified itself as the top hot-button HR issue of 2006 last month. Amid the backdrop of immigrants’ rights rallies around the country, Congress is debating legislation that could add to employers’ duties and risks in policing immigration …

Are Employee Protests a ‘Protected’ Activity?

06/01/2006

Recent immigration-related rallies have led many employees, mostly minority ones, to skip work on those days. That action sparked an important question in HR circles: How should employers react to unexcused absences caused by employees’ attending political protests? …

EEOC sends message with new guidelines on race, color bias

06/01/2006

The EEOC recently sent a powerful signal about its enforcement priorities when it published newly revised employer guidance on workplace race and color discrimination. The message: Employee complaints of race bias or color bias will be pushed to the top of the EEOC’s inbox …

Fire employee for positive cocaine test

06/01/2006

Q. We are a small but growing construction company, and we don’t have formal policies in place. Recently, one of our employees was involved in an accident at a construction site. This is his third accident. After the second time, we had him sign a warning notice that said he’d be terminated if it happened again. We sent him for drug testing after this third accident and he came back positive for cocaine. We want to terminate him. But we suspended another worker who tested positive for marijuana. Can we fire him? —B.O., Pennsylvania

Religious accommodations: Know when to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’

05/01/2006

Employers need to keep their eye on a growing trend: a groundswell of support for more freedom to practice religion in the workplace. And support for the movement is coming from some unexpected quarters: the U.S. Supreme Court and a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators …

Illegal immigrants now hold 1 of every 20 U.S. jobs

05/01/2006

Undocumented immigrants make up almost 5 percent of the U.S. work force, and about 850,000 illegal immigrants arrive each year, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center study …

New I-9, W-4 needed when employee changes name?

05/01/2006

Q. When employees get married, do we need new W-4s to show the new name? And do we need new I-9s (which, I assume, would require supporting documentation in the new name)? — M.G., Washington