HR/Employment Blogosphere update for May 16, 2005
I’m trying a subtle shift for this feature — from naked titles and links to a Blawg Review-like, slightly more conversational style. I hope to do a podcast on these links, but don’t hold your breath.
Anthony Cerminaro of BizzBangBuzz touches on the independent contractor/employee distinction, with reference to Benefitsblog, which in turn cites to the source: a couple of IRS pubs.
BenefitsBlog also provides a couple of useful links deep within the Dept. of Labor’s deep website — lists of links to DOL opinion letters on the FLSA and FMLA, respectively.
Sam at Disability Law blog writes a review of a law review article on the legal status under the ADA of employee misconduct caused by a disability. My review of the review? Its good. Important subject, and you can get a good glimpse of it just from the review. Read it.
Sam also reviews a Fortune magazine article entitled “Why the Disabilities Act Exasperates Entrepreneurs.”
Speaking of ADA cases, Michael Fox of Jottings by an Employer’s Lawyer writes about a multimillion dollar punitive damages verdict in a failure-to-hire case involving a blind applicant for a call center job. Most interesting point to me is his comments about EEOC attorneys: “Any employer (or their counsel) who goes to trial under the impression that they will not be able to try a good case, should probably think again.” I agree, notwithstanding my somewhat uppity recent criticism of a particular EEOC case.
Jottings also picked up a New Jersey newspaper story on the cost to taxpayers of employment litigation against local governments. With government employers, the taxpayers pay — that’s us. But guess what? With private sector employers, either consumers pay in higher prices or American companies suffer one more disadvantage relative to foreign competition. Either way, we pay.
Ross Runkel at Lawmemo.com writes of yet another case challenging the subject matter of a discrimination lawsuit as being inadequately described in the antecedent EEOC charge. This time, the employer’s success on this issue at the trial court level turned to bitter failure. The court of appeals pushed “the rules to the outer limit” in favor of the plaintiff, whose charge hadn’t the faintest whiff of harassment, allowing him to proceed on a harassment claim after already winning a jury verdict for discriminatory discharge.
Ross also writes of a case that might encourage us all to put sharp red editing pens to work on our employment claim releases. This case applies the requirement under the age discrimination act that releases be “written in a manner calculated to be understood by such individual, or by the average individual eligible to participate.” I can write an age release that’s only one or two pages, but I’ve seen many that exceed five pages (single spaced). I wonder which is more likely to satisfy this requirement?
About.com’s Human Resources, certainly near the top of my list of top ten suppliers of “top ten” tips, provides managers with “10 Tips For Taking Yourself Seriously, So Your Employees Do, Too.”
Regina Miller, of HR’s Brand New Experience, writes her musings about the “digirati club,” or “digital elite,” about managers not members of this club who are being left behind by technological change, and about how this digirati-nondigirati gap may contribute to an increasingly dissatisfied workforce.
Sean Rehder’s Contingent Workforce blog picks up one of the stories of the year: employee turnover and retention in the face of aggressive recruiting of passive candidates and growing employee overwork and dissatisfaction. Sean links to an article originally published in the Indy Star with this wonderful title: “Workers now employ a can-quit attitude.”
The Future of Work Weblog includes a review of Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat.” This book is about the story of the century: “The world economy is flat; it doesn’t make any difference if your business is based in Baltimore or Bangalore; technology (and several related factors) have put your business right next door to every other business anywhere in the world. But the catch is that those entrepreneurs in Bangalore have radically lower costs in the areas that matter than do their neighbors in Baltimore.” Sounds like a book we all ought to be reading.
Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters observes and summarizes recent criticism of the US health care system from both liberals (NY Times’ Paul Krugman) and “intelligent conservatives” (the Economist), with reference to GM and Wal-Mart, concluding: “Health care reform is going to happen, and will be driven by both sides of the political aisle.”
