Employment Relations Today articles from December 22 1991

Employment Relations Today archives from December 22 1991

Hair follicle testing - an alternative to urinalysis for drug abuse screening.
December 22, 1991... Employers of the nineties are faced with the challenge of providing a comprehensive support system to assist employees in coping with a wide range of personal and professional concerns, including the possibility of drug and alcohol abuse....

Legal issues presented by hair follicle testing.
December 22, 1991... The legal issues that arise in the context of hair follicle drug testing are not distinct from the legal issues connected with urinalysis drug testing. Both types of drug testing raise issues in the areas of privacy, defamation, handicap...

Inventing the future: new approaches to management, compensation, and learning at Apple Computer.
December 22, 1991... A contemporary fact of business life is that everywhere we look we see change. Technologies are changing. Scientific theories are changing. Competitive assumptions are changing. Organizations are changing. Change is not new. What is...

Zero tolerance for sexual harassment at Northern States Power. (Special Section: Sexual Harassment at Work)
December 22, 1991... This is one of a variety of case studies that Northern States Power Company (NSP) uses in the two-and-one-half-hour internal training program that the NSP human resources group designed and uses to combat sexual harassment throughout the...

A model program against sexual harassment at the Department of Labor. (Special Section: Sexual Harassment at Work)
December 22, 1991... When I became Secretary of Labor, I determined to make the Department of Labor itself a model workplace. As part of that effort, I commissioned a task force to review our policy on sexual harassment and am currently directing the...

A court-mandated sexual harassment policy. (Jacksonville Shipyards Inc.; includes appendix) (Special Section: Sexual Harassment at Work)
December 22, 1991... Early in 1991, a welder, Lois Robinson, won a sexual harassment lawsuit against her employer, Jacksonville Shipyards. Two facts about this case make it notable. First, Robinson had alleged hostile work environment sexual harassment based on...

Depressed organizations: identifying the symptoms and overcoming the causes. (includes appendix)
December 22, 1991... Depression is the number one emotional problem for people in the United States, so it shouldn't be surprising that entire organizations experience its effects. In some cases, the effects are subtle. In others, an entire organization could...

Managing the diversity that follows mergers and restructurings.
December 22, 1991... Although the domestic merger mania of the 1980s has subsided, corporations in the 1990s are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of international deals. The Japanese are becoming much more aggressive in their purchase of foreign...

Critical-incident response: healing the wounds of traumatic events.
December 22, 1991... A traumatic event or crisis can happen at the work site at any time and anyplace. Events such as accidental deaths, sudden fatal heart attacks, robberies, suicide, and shootings occur every day. The corporate office is just as susceptible...

Four lessons from downsizing to build future productivity.
December 22, 1991... Just two years ago, there were dire predictions of shortages of skilled laborers to fuel the personnel needs of "Workforce 2000." Government statistics indicated that U.S. corporations would have to take drastic steps to find experienced or...

Employee surveys: what employers are doing and what works.
December 22, 1991... Only about half of the organizations that have recently conducted an employee survey are satisfied with the changes that result, Foster Higgins found when we polled human resources executives. (See Exhibit 1). But this does not have to be...

Effective ways to conduct recruiting and hiring.
December 22, 1991... The process of interviewing is complex and sometimes confusing. An understanding of the job to be accomplished, a realistic view of your corporate identity, and an efficient recruiting game plan contribute to a more effective, less...

The Civil Rights Act of 1991. (Federal Regulations Update)
December 22, 1991... On October 30, 1991, the Senate, by a margin of 93 to 5, passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The House passed the bill on November 8, and President Bush was expected to have signed it by mid-November. The bill represents a compromise among...

State drug testing legislation on the rise. (State Regulatory Update)
December 22, 1991... Although the federal government has been active in initiating legislation on drug testing, no comprehensive federal statute exists. For example, the well-publicized federal Drug Free Workplace Act (DFWA) covers only federal contractors and...

Employee participation programs under the National Labor Relations Act. (Key Court Cases)
December 22, 1991... Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early 1980s, a number of foreign firms in various industries made significant inroads into the U.S. market in part by the sharp improvement of the quality levels of their products. One of...

ADEA considers employer's financial factors. (Age Discrimination in Employment Act) (Questions - and Answers)
December 22, 1991... Our company is considering a restructuring that would result in the elimination of a highly paid position that is presently filled by an older worker. Can we eliminate this position without violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act?...

ADA mandates reasonable accommodation. (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) (Questions - and Answers)
December 22, 1991... What are employers' obligations with respect to reasonably accommodating disabled persons under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990? The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) takes effect for most employers on July 26,...

Discharge of substance abusers. (Questions - and Answers)
December 22, 1991... May an employer discharge an employee who has a substance-abuse problem? In the last issue of Employment Relations Today, we addressed the myriad problems posed by substance-dependent employees and some of the options available to...

Fetal-protection policies. (Questions - and Answers)
December 22, 1991... May an employer lawfully bar fertile women from jobs that are potentially hazardous to their unborn children? The U.S. Supreme Court answered the question in the negative. In United Auto Workers v. Johnson Controls, Inc., 111 S. Ct. 1196...