Topics: Labor and Employment - 1595 results

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed a bill into law last week that provides recourse against discrimination to workers at companies that employ fewer than 15 people. The legislation amends state law so that employees who bring harassment and discrimination suits against their employer can receive punitive and compensatory damages, as well as attorney fees. Previously, workers who brought successful claims through the state could only get their job back, along with back pay. Employees could receive damages by suing under …

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday vetoed a law passed by the legislature that would ban employers from asking for the social media passwords of workers and applicants. Christie said that he would sign the bill if it were amended to exclude some of its more restrictive components. New Jersey would have been the eighth state to stop businesses from snooping into their current or prospective employees’ Facebook and Twitter accounts, although the Jersey law would have gone several …

  Editorial Director Betsy Kim provides a video Newsbreak, focusing on employment rights.  A Nashville, Tennessee, T-Mobile call center employee experiencing a difficult pregnancy, frequently needed to use the bathroom. She had to provide a doctor’s note, clock out and use vacation time for her restroom breaks. T-mobile fired the employee shortly after her return from maternity leave, for a 12-cent error. Astonishingly, she never filed a lawsuit. Only eight states require employee rest periods. There’s no legal requirement for …

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t helpful for the CEO who recently bought Hostess’ most iconic brands to tell the Wall Street Journal that he did not “expect to be involved in the union going forward.” C. Dean Metropoulos, head of the reborn Hostess Brands LLC, may very well still not expect to have to bargain with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union, whose work stoppage led to the liquidation of Hostess Brands, Inc. last year. But …

A turkey processing company has been ordered by a jury to pay a whopping $240 million for paying mentally disabled workers 41 cents per hour and housing them in a rodent-infested “house of horrors.” The award will be divided evenly among 32 mentally disabled workers who worked for Henry’s Turkey Service in Atalissa, Iowa. The lawsuit alleged the company violated federal law protecting workers with disabilities and that the men were abused, harshly disciplined, including being kicked in the groin, …