• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly
Connection failed: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory

Texas

Fed contractors to pay almost $1M to rejected applicants

10/01/2007

The U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that two federal contractors have agreed to settle allegations of hiring discrimination. Comark Building Systems, of DeSoto, agreed to pay $229,534 in back pay and interest to 740 applicants it rejected for the position of plant laborer. Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP agreed to pay $749,000 in back pay and interest to 399 black applicants whom it rejected for the position of utility worker …

AG enjoins two Texas employers in union-Organizing case

10/01/2007

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced injunctions barring two employers from enforcing “closed-shop” clauses in agreements with the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America. In July, the state sued Deco-Akal JV, of El Paso, and Asset Protections & Security Services, LP, of Corpus Christi, for suspending or threatening to suspend employees who refused to pay union dues …

Court certifies class action in pension calculation suit

10/01/2007

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas recently certified a class action of current and former participants and beneficiaries of a cash-balance pension plan sponsored by United Way of the Gulf Coast. The participants and beneficiaries claimed that the plan sponsor miscalculated early-retirement benefits when it switched the pension plan from a defined-benefit plan to a cash-balance plan …

New regulations issued regarding Social Security ‘No-Match’ letters

10/01/2007

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued new final regulations detailing how employers must respond to Social Security “no-match” letters. That means employers that receive no-match letters now have new legal obligations when it comes to verifying and maintaining federal I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification documents …

Can I stop employees from organizing?

10/01/2007

Q. How do I prevent employees from talking to a union or going to the National Labor Relations Board?

Caution when dealing with employees’ ‘protected concerted activity’

10/01/2007
Q. I recently received a memo signed by all four employees in one department asking for 5% raises. Can I have a meeting with them to let them know that there is no money for raises, that their department could easily be eliminated and that they would be smarter just to keep a low profile and do their jobs?

How to handle pay for interns

10/01/2007

Q. Must a Texas employer pay its interns? …

Drug testing: Minimize lawsuit risk with smart policy

09/01/2007

You have the right to demand a drug-free workplace, but employees also have reasonable rights to privacy. That’s why drug testing and substance-abuse prevention programs carry big-time legal risks if they’re not managed properly. Employers can safely administer drug testing before hiring someone, during a fitness-for-duty test and after a preventable accident …

Do you destroy hiring documents? Track process anyway

09/01/2007

Nothing generates paper like the hiring process, especially if it involves multiple interviews and committee meetings. What do you do with all that paper? If you destroy it, be prepared to show you do so routinely. Otherwise, a jury or judge may view the destruction as evidence you have something to hide …

One mistake won’t sink fluctuating workweek election

09/01/2007

Employers that use the Fair Labor Standards Act’s fluctuating workweek method to calculate pay should take heart!  Making one innocent deduction mistake doesn’t mean you can never use the method again …