As I sit in a hotel room in Texas the day before the start of the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) annual conference, it made me pause to consider how much better this is than going virtual during the pandemic. Don’t get me wrong, there are benefits to learning virtually, and I can learn from both virtual and in-person classes, but there is something different about an in-person conference.

Did you know that except for December, the summer months are more dangerous than winter months for driving?  Many organizations have employees that drive as part of their job, so it’s important to keep them educated and safe on the road.

On June 23rd Great Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) by 52% to 48%.  To no one’s surprise this decision sent shockwaves through the stock market and has employers questioning how this might affect global mobility and business.  The good news is that nothing will happen immediately, as this process takes up to two years, but it is wise for employers to be prepared for global mobility impacts within international operations that include Great Britain.

As everyone knows who has been following the issue, new federal regulations will be coming out soon that will redefine “exempt” employment. These new rules are expected to result in many heretofore exempt positions being redefined as non-exempt and therefore eligible for overtime pay. So the time is right to review some of the more complex applications of the overtime rules. 

Non-exempt employees traveling for business purposes must be compensated for certain aspects of traveling. Let’s consider Joe, a hypothetical non-exempt employee, not qualified to be exempt from the FLSA’s wage and overtime rules. Joe is a technician whose normal work hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

Now that a second nurse from the Dallas hospital that was treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first U.S. Ebola patient, was found to have contracted Ebola, the media has ratcheted up coverage of the crisis and frightened many people as a result. The infected nurse took a Frontier flight from Cleveland to Dallas while she had a slight temperature, which was below the CDC guidelines for the Ebola breakout.   The nurse had called the CDC and informed the agency of her temperature but she...

Want to bring a manager or executive from overseas to the U.S.?  Want to train international staff on various processes here in the U.S.?  What used to be a nonissue is today a major headache for most employers.  The L-1 visa was originally established by Congress in 1970 to permit multinational companies to transfer executives, managers and specialized knowledge employees to the U.S. The L-1 was a standard tool for managing a global workforce. Today the U.S. is becoming...

Here is the question of the day:  An employee is injured in an accident driving to work in the morning. Is that employee eligible for workers compensation? Generally, injuries sustained by an employee while going to and coming from work are not compensable under the worker’s compensation act. However, any of these circumstances that could make the injury compensable under the law: Where the employee is on a special mission for the employer Where the employer derives a...

Questions about work-related travel and subsequent injuries as they relate to Workers' Compensation law frequently come up. Specifically, employers often want to know whether an employee who injuries himself or herself while travelling to or from work qualifies for a Workers' Compensation claim.  While many grey areas continue to exist, some are not as grey as many HR professionals think.  Consider the following: Scenario #1: An employee is travelling from her residence to...