A new case has been filed in the Northern District of Texas which could upend the Fair Labor Standards Act law (FLSA).  The new case attacks the two-prong approach of the U.S. Department of Labor of establishing exempt employee thresholds using a salary hurdle test and then the duties test. 

Having fun at work is proven to increase engagement and results in healthier and happier employees. It’s where most of us spend a majority of our day, so why not make it fun!

When a company assesses new talent, they look at hard skills, soft skills, work experience, reasons for making particular career moves, cultural fit, and a plethora of other criteria before making a hiring decision.

Last week, by its ruling in Jackson v. General Electric, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reminded employers that they must make sure any settlement type of agreement with an employee complies with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Older Workers Benefits Protection Act (OWBPA). This is not a new development, but the case reminds HR professionals and their legal counsel that any formal agreement settling discrimination or other claims by an employer with an employee,...

CDC updates COVID guidance:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled significant changes last Thursday as part of a sweeping effort to overhaul the agency's COVID-19 guidance.  "This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives," CDC's Greta Massetti said in a statement announcing the changes.  Among the biggest differences...

There is no doubt about the importance of a strong HR team to an organization.  The role of HR in the future of work will be to usher in the organization’s new initiatives that include employer branding, agility, and innovation. Hierarchy will flatten out and managers will coach teams that can make fast decisions.  Utilization of data and continuous learning will drive innovation.

With the great resignation, the labor pricing dilemma for many manufacturing organizations, and the rise of less skilled labor (can anyone find an electrical engineer these days?), the move to automation seems inevitable.  For example, with the rise of artificial intelligence, anyone could be a programmer with the AI predicting the next line.  For DEI professionals it becomes a way to create diversity in the programming ranks.  According to a recent study, 47% of U.S. jobs are...

Have you heard about the latest workplace trend?  It’s called quiet quitting.  It’s when an employee makes a decision to no longer go above and beyond, and instead, do the bare minimum as entailed in their job description. 

Employers have had to scramble over the last three years while dealing with COVID. Suddenly working from home was not a rare option but a required way to keep businesses going while keeping employees as safe as possible. Now that most companies and employees have found their groove in dealing with the pandemic, long COVID is creating new challenges for employers and the employees suffering from the symptoms.

It has seemed at least to people that track labor issues that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been on quite a roll favoring unions across the United States. The NLRB with its Democrat appointed Board majority and its very pro-labor agenda is working diligently to change interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) at every turn, including the major issue of joint employment status.

VETS 4212 reporting cycle has begun:  Starting last week, the VETS 4212 reporting cycle is on.  For more information, go to VETS-4212 Federal Contractor Reporting | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov). This report applies to any federal contractor or subcontractor with $150,000 or more in contracts regardless of the number of employees

Last week, the Michigan Supreme Court in a 5-2 decision ruled in the Rouch World LLC v. Department of Civil Rights (SC Docket 162482) case that sexual orientation is covered by “sex” in the Elliott-Larsen Act. This case was brought by businesses that denied services to customers who were either a same-sex couple or an individual who was transitioning their gender identity for religious reasons. Defendants in the lawsuit include Uprooted Electrolysis LLC, based in Gwinn, and Rouch...

On Friday, Michigan Court of Claim Judge Douglas Shapiro issued a stay order in response to appeals filed by the State of Michigan. The stay was on his ruling two weeks ago holding that the method used by the Michigan Legislature to adopt and amend those laws was unconstitutionally conducted. In staying his ruling, the Judge stated there were “justified concerns” about employer’s ability to accommodate the changes so quickly.

New research from employee benefits provider Unum shows over half (56%) of U.S. workers, primarily Millennials and Gen Z, felt mentally unwell in the previous year. Additionally, 42% of employees said they needed to take time off from work to deal with their mental health. Fortunately, 71% of workers believe their employer is more concerned about employees’ mental health than they were in the past according to the recently released 2022 Work and Well-being Survey from American...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) commissioned a report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS), which studied the EEOC’s historic, first-time collection of pay data from certain private employers and federal contractors completed in 2020. The NAS study was commissioned by a unanimous vote of the bipartisan Commission in 2020.