HR Briefing articles from July 2002

HR Briefing archives from July 2002

Companies easing restrictions on 401(k) plans. (Compensation & Benefits).(U.S.)
July 15, 2002... In the wake of the Enron disaster, companies are beginning to loosen restrictions on 401(k) plans. Changes include relaxing limitations on workers right to sell company stock in their plans, and allowing employees to have employer-provided...

EEOC may change claims-processing procedures.(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * In its ongoing quest to reduce a backlog of discrimination and retaliation charges, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may change procedures for processing complaints by federal employees. Right now the commission is...

HR must shed second-class role, lead innovation. (Best Practices).(human resource departments, U.S.)(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... HR will have a huge strategic role in shaping the workplace of the future, but it must first overcome the legacy of "taking a second-class role to other functions in an organization," says Gil Maffeo, Ph.D., associate professor of management...

Women with degrees work past retirement.(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * A recent study of working women by Pennsylvania State University's labor economist Elizabeth Hill revealed an unexpected tie between college education and working past retirement age. Although Hill had suspected that high...

Social Security verifying aliens' work records.(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * When hiring immigrants, make sure they're legal and that there are no discrepancies in their work documents. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is intensifying its efforts to correct discrepancies in employment information it keeps on...

Third-party liability. (You Be The Judge).(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... Bargain Auto World, Inc. called in the local police to investigate a break-in at its service department. The lock on the door of the department's main entrance had been broken, and several small tools were missing. Based on the visible...

Pilots agree to pay cuts to keep flying.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 15, 2002... * Nearly 6,000 members of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) at US Airways accepted a pay cut so that the airline could continue operating. The pilots agreed to an average pay cut of 26 percent for the next seven years along with...

Civil Rights Commission found guilty of retaliation.(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * Upholding an earlier decision by an administrative law judge, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights guilty of retaliating against one of its own employees for filing discrimination...

Coalition helps Enron workers get more severance pay.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 15, 2002... * After six months of pressuring the Enron Corporation and government officials, a coalition of unlikely partners--nonunion workers, organized labor, and church groups--has won over $29 million in additional severance pay for laid off Enron...

California Senate passes paid family leave bill.(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * California is often the place where unprecedented changes in the law occur. As such, California could become the first state in the Union to offer paid family leave. In a vote split almost exactly along party lines, the California...

Should you rehire--and if so, when and how? (Hiring).
July 15, 2002... Some employees will leave your company under unfavorable conditions that would make it difficult--if not impossible--to take them back. But that won't stop them from responding to job openings they hear about through the grapevine or read...

Supreme Court backs company's refusal to hire.(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has said that, barring an available reasonable accommodation, an employer would not be expected to hire a person who poses a personal health or safety threat. But the U.S. Court of...

Prevent workplace violence with a four-step solution. (Workplace Violence).(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... Mention the words workplace violence, and horrific images are likely to come to mind. People immediately think of incidents like the one at a manufacturing plant in North Carolina where an angry employee killed four people. Is this...

Future organizations will rely on temporary force.(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... * HR must be prepare for the transition of organizations from employers of mostly full-time, permanent workers to ones that rely on temporary staff and short-term specialists, says Gil Maffeo, Ph.D., associate professor of management and...

Our readers ask ...(Brief Article)
July 15, 2002... Q Our sexual-harassment-reporting policy encourages employees to report incidences of misconduct wherever they occur. One employee recently filed a sexual harassment complaint against another employee, saying that the alleged harasser has...

Retaliation is third-largest claim; employers face third-party trap. (Retaliation).(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Retaliation claims now make up 30 percent of all charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). These claims have doubled during the past 10 years, increasing from 11,000 in 1992 to more than 22,000 in 2001. (By...

EEOC settles railroad genetic-testing case. (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co.).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity commission (EEOC) settled a case against Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company, after the company sought to secretly perform genetic tests on employees. The railroad denied that it violated...

Workplace obesity raises complex legal questions. (Discrimination).(discrimination against overweight persons)
July 1, 2002... Health experts claim that more than half of the U.S. adult population is overweight. Some say that number may be as high as 61 percent of the population. Whichever sources are correct, the reality is that a healthy--or perhaps,...

Workers rate employers high on privacy policies.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... When it comes to privacy practices in the workplace, a new survey says the vast majority of workers feel their bosses are pretty good eggs, though most say companies could do a better job communicating their policies on personal employee data...

ADA. (You Be The Judge).(Americans with Disabilities Act )
July 1, 2002... Ben Parks had finally found someone he could hire as a forklifter for his unit. The job had been vacant for nearly five weeks, and he was anxious to fill it. The employee who had held the position retired after 15 years. Parks knew that...

Employees prefer mobility.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Most employees spend significant time moving around the office to foster collaboration with colleagues, according to a recent survey by Steelcase, Inc. The Steelcase Workplace Index Survey measures workplace effectiveness and the ways in...

Undeleted e-mail lives on.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Many people recognize the importance of shredding sensitive information to avoid opportunistic dumpster divers, but rarely do they consider this scenario in the electronic world, says Rick Shaw, president of CorpNet Security. "Recently,...

Students with disabilities available.(labor force)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the U.S. Department of Defense have teamed up with the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) to help find temporary and permanent employment for college students...

Employees trust company leaders.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Despite recent reports about the questionable financial practices of the executives of U.S. companies, most American employees trust and respect their companies. According to the Gallup/UBS Employee Confidence Index, nearly 87 percent of...

Technology, networking can lower employee health costs. (Benefits).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... With health care costs still rising, and business profits down, leading companies and health care consultants say that senior corporate managers must take a personal and proactive role in addressing the factors that drive up medical insurance...

Managers will take vacations, but stay tied to the office.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... An American Management Association (AMA) study says that nearly 98 percent of the 645 executives it surveyed plan to take extensive vacations this summer, but they expect to check in regularly with the office while they're away. The...

Spam is costly, risky nuisance for the workplace. (Technology).
July 1, 2002... Spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE), is not only an annoying distraction for your employees, it's also a costly one. An organization can pay out as much as $47,916.66 a year in employee distraction--the time lost to a company when...

Study shows appraisals favor male workers. (Performance Appraisals).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... If employee promotions are based on positive images rather than skills and talent, then men have the edge over women, according to a long-term study recently released by Pennsylvania State University. David V. Day, Ph.D., a professor of...

Companies hiring fewer college graduates.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2002... The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports that employers will hire 36 percent fewer graduates from the class of 2002. According to Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director, "The economic recovery came a little too...

Workplaces returning to normal.(following the Sept. 11. terrorist attacks)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... In the weeks following the Sept. 11. terrorist attacks, workplaces reported plans to increase security and travel plans for employees were restricted. Recent reports, however, show that most workplaces have returned to normal and that few...

Companies offer new Web-based telecommuting guide. (Business news).(Managing Telecommuting: A Guide for Remote Managers)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Work & Family Connection, Inc. and Gil Gordon Associates of Minneapolis have jointly produced the world's first Web-based courses on how to telecommute and manage telecommuters successfully. Managing Telecommuting: A Guide for Remote...

Michelin to appeal insomnia court ruling. (In the courts).(Michelin Canada hit by workers' compensation case for sleep disorder)
July 1, 2002... An employee at Michelin Canada sued the company for denying him workers' compensation for a sleep disorder called "shift-work maladaptation syndrome." The employee claimed that constantly rotating shifts led to insomnia, chronic exhaustion,...