Newsletter Archive for January 2011

Real Weekly Earnings Rose 1.5 Percent in 2010, BLS Says

In December, real average weekly earnings of nonsupervisory and production workers in the nonfarm private sector declined 0.2 percent after falling 0.3 percent the prior month. Last month’s decline resulted largely from a 0.6 percent rise in the CPI-W, offset by a 0.1 hour gain in the average workweek, to 33.6 hours from 33.5 hours in November, and a 0.1 percent advance in unadjusted average hourly earnings. Read More

Obama Orders Repeal, Modification of Outdated Regulations

President Obama Jan. 18 signed an executive order and two memoranda to regulatory agencies that are intended to make upcoming regulations less burdensome to businesses and to eliminate or modify the outdated, costly regulations that currently exist. Read More

House Votes to Quash PPACA

By a 245-189 vote, the House Jan. 19 approved legislation (H.R. 2) to repeal the health care overhaul law passed by Congress in 2010. Read More

Despite Arbitration Agreement, Employee Demands Day in Court

Facts: In March 2009, a department store hired a new business manager for a cosmetics product line. She signed an employment contract stipulating that disagreements would be settled through arbitration. Once she began working at the store, she signed an additional document in which she agreed to use the employer’s dispute resolution program “instead of a court proceeding, including a jury trial” to resolve “covered claims against” the employer. Read More

Online Ads Dip 0.2 Percent

The volume of online help-wanted advertising dipped by 0.2 percent in December, ending three consecutive monthly gains, according to seasonally adjusted figures released Jan. 5 by the Conference Board. Read More

Workers Likely to See Better Wage Increases, BNA Index Shows

“The labor market continues to improve incrementally,” said economist Kathryn Kobe, a consultant who maintains and helped develop BNA’s WTI database.
In December, the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent, while employers added 103,000 jobs to payrolls, the Labor Department reported (62 BTM 11, 1/11/11). Employment grew in 2010 for the first time in two years, by a total of 1.1 million jobs. Read More

Updated Ruling on Debit Card Usage for OTC Medications

The IRS recently announced that beginning January 15, 2011, an FSA or HRA debit card may continue to be used to purchase prescribed over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and drugs. Read More

Is ‘Boisterous’ Complaint Protected by Whistleblower Law?

“You can’t fire me for expressing safety concerns,” said truck driver Brett Smith. “I’m protected by whisteblower laws.”

“We appreciate your safety concerns,” countered Human Resources Director Jessica Stone. “But you lost your job for being insubordinate.”

Was the firing justified? Read More

Employee Terminated at 57 Lacks Triable ADEA Claim

A graphic artist fired at age 57 as part of a reduction in force lacks an Age Discrimination in Employment Act claim because he cannot show age was the “but for” cause of his termination, but he may have a claim under Missouri law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Dec. 27 (Clark v. Matthews Int’l Corp., 8th Cir., No. 10-1037, 12/27/10). Read More

Mass Layoffs Down, but Number of Workers Involved Rose

The number of mass layoff events declined in November from October, but more workers lost their jobs in these events than during the month before, according to figures released Dec. 22 by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read More

Start of Year May Be Right Time for Cost-Cutting Measures

“I can’t think of a business that isn’t looking for improvements,” McDonald, managing partner of Fisher & Phillips’s Irvine, Calif., practice, told BNA. “Certainly our clients are.” Read More

Job Vacancies Rose in October, as Layoffs Held Steady

Upholding a trial court, an appellate court in 2009 ruled that the professors could not proceed with their pay discrimination claims because any alleged discriminatory pay decisions occurred outside of the statute’s two-year limitations period and each paycheck did not constitute a new discrete act of bias. Read More