Blogs
Michelle Obama and Cheeta
The Word - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 08:38
Straight from the Volunteer State comes a clear message to all employers and employees: “Don’t do this!” A sub-message might be: “Fix your CEO’s computer so he can’t forward emails to anyone!” The CEO of a Tennessee hospitality organization forwarded an email to various government officials, public relations colleagues, and friends in which First Lady Michelle Obama is [...]
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Liability for Layoff Heart Attacks?
The Word - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 06:54
There’s a growing body of evidence that layoffs — or even “persistent perceived job insecurity” — can adversely affect employee health and life expectancy. A recent New York Times article details the travails of laid-off steelworkers in New York. If an employee has a heart attack and dies after being laid off, is the employer liable? That would be [...]
Categories: Blogs
Using Gender at Work: Discrimination?
The Word - Mon, 03/08/2010 - 14:50
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, it’s unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sex or gender. So, an employer can’t give better jobs to men, use sexual stereotypes to make job decisions, etc. Can an employer use women instead of men to, let’s say, deal with other women because women do that better than men? The U.S. [...]
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Tough Love or Bloodthirsty Mentality
The Word - Mon, 03/08/2010 - 09:31
The current recession has already made permanent changes in the private sector’s employer-employee relations. Its now beginning to make those changes in the public or government sector. The private sector overreacted by laying off hundreds of thousands of employees but has now discovered that it can operate with fewer employees. The government at all levels is out of [...]
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Hot List: The Library Journal’s Best Business Books of 2009
Resources for Humans: - Mon, 03/08/2010 - 09:23
In its 133rd year of publication, Library Journal is the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field, with review sections evaluating nearly 7000 books annually, along with hundreds of audiobooks, videos, databases, web sites, and systems that libraries buy. Recently, Library Journal released its list of the 32 best business books of 2009, dividing the books into nine categories. Here are the first three categories.
Autobiography/Biography
The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy. Ivar Kreuger parlayed his success with the Swedish Match Corp. into a capital-raising journey to 1920s America, where enthusiastic investors got caught up in his financial schemes, the complexity (and instability) of which rival many of today’s.
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles. This historical biography of the shipping and financial magnate may be too much of a good thing for some readers, but its insights into the social and business worlds of antebellum America and Vanderbilt’s indomitable influence on America’s financial system make it a rich read.
Business/Corporate History
Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta. Journalist Auletta provides a perceptive and determined look inside Google, the fast-growing company with the corporate motto “don’t be evil” and which is simultaneously proud of its open internal culture and its resistance to outsider scrutiny.
The Towering World of Jimmy Choo: A Glamorous Story of Power, Profits, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe by Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de Rosen. This slim history highlights the creation and marketing of a major luxury brand while detailing the relationship between shoe designer Jimmy Choo and society girl Tamara Mellon, which first produced massive success but later soured.
Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us: Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives by Emily Yellin. Although it focuses primarily on customer service provided (or not) over the phone, this is a unique look at service workers’ points of view and the future, advantages, and drawbacks of automated customer service.
Economics/U.S. Economy
The Capitalist’s Bible: The Essential Guide to Free Markets–and Why They Matter to You by Gretchen Morgenson. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Morgenson’s primer on the history, jargon, successes, and disasters of the capitalist system is essential for anyone who lives within one.
The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street by Justin Fox. Time economics columnist Fox provides a scholarly but readable history of the efficient market theory that drove much of 20th-century economics practice, contrasting its focus on rationality with recent behavioral economics findings.
This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. Only hard-core business and history readers may get all the way through this title, but anyone who thinks our current economic crisis is the first or worst of its kind would do well to read this history of debt, inflation, currency, and banking crises.
Free Market Madness: Why Human Nature is at Odds with Economics–and Why it Matters by Peter A. Ubel. Examines the many ways in which individuals make irrational decisions and argues the free market cannot be entirely trusted to regulate itself in the face of that irrationality.
Categories: Blogs
Baby, Baby, Please
Thats What She Said - Fri, 03/05/2010 - 02:04
Litigation Value: Not much. With collective attentions devoted almost entirely to the miracle of childbirth, the Scranton branch didn’t leave us much to work with tonight. Whereas Dwight Schrute’s senseless destruction of Jim and Pam Halpert’s kitchen cabinetry exposes him to a cornucopia of civil and criminal liabilities in his own right, it’s unlikely that his [...]
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Supreme Court Hears Another Gun Case
The Word - Wed, 03/03/2010 - 13:13
Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms for personal use, striking down a District of Columbia ban on handguns in District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court didn’t say whether the Second Amendment generally applies to state and local gun control laws. The [...]
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Language of Prosperity: Multilingual Employees
Diversity Insight - Sun, 02/14/2010 - 21:11
It’s hard to believe there was a day when nonnative English-speaking parents disapproved of their children learning any language other than English. Today, many parents embrace foreign languages as a stepping stone to their children’s economic success. That’s because businesses often prosper from employing bilingual and multilingual staff.
The Vast Melting Pot
It’s hard to ignore the importance of language skills in our society. Have you ever taken count of how many languages are spoken in the waiting room of your local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) at any given time? The DMV is a microcosm of a larger picture. According to CNN.com, 55.8 million people speak a language other than English in the United States. Those 55.8 million people are potential consumers of the services and products that you provide.
Businesses rely on staff who can effectively communicate with potential and existing customers. At the most basic level, knowledge of your customers’ language is a great way, if not the best way, to effectively communicate. Think about it: When you return from a non-English-speaking country, is it not a refreshing feeling to finally hear your native tongue all around you? Doesn’t the ability to fully interact with others make you happy? Your customers are looking for a positive business transaction. From a business perspective, hiring employees who can make that happen makes sense.
The Reality
Often there’s the perception that immigrants or children of immigrants don’t reside in the Midwest. When it comes to the Hispanic population, it’s true that Wisconsin doesn’t come close to states like New York, California, Texas, and Arizona. However, according to Ben Poston of the Journal Sentinel, since 2000, the Hispanic population in Wisconsin has increased by 48.2 percent.
Darryl Morin of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Wisconsin explains, “What [this number] does is confirm what a lot of us already know ― Hispanics are integrating into Wisconsin and bringing economic and social benefits to the state.” Enrique Figueroa, director of the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, foresees a continuation of Hispanic population growth in the state over the next decade.
Finding Bilingual Employees
Every employer knows that finding the right employee is a difficult task. According to Julian Teixeira’s article “More Companies Recruit Bilingual Employees,” some recruiters are becoming more resourceful. Joining local organizations such as the National Society of Hispanic MBAs is just one example of that resourcefulness. Through membership, businesses are able to post job opportunities in the organization’s newsletter. Others are holding “open houses” for bilingual and multilingual candidates allowing the employers to target bilingual and multilingual candidates and introduce them to their company. Some businesses have even begun paying bilingual and multilingual employees a higher salary than other staff.
Testing Language Abilities
There are varying degrees of language proficiency. Just because a person can order food in another language at a restaurant doesn’t mean he can just as effortlessly conduct a real estate transaction in that language. Many recruiters test candidates’ language skills during the interview process. According to Teixeira, it’s important to implement oral and written components for the test. You also want to make sure that a candidate is proficient speaking and writing English because he will almost certainly need to conduct business in English.
Bottom Line
There’s no disadvantage to hiring bilingual and multilingual employees, but there may be a disadvantage to not hiring them. People look for fruitful business transactions on both ends. That’s more easily facilitated when both parties can communicate effectively. Language is a common bond, and the more bonds you create, the more business you’ll reap. That’s because your customers not only will feel comfortable working with you, but they also will appreciate the effort you put into creating that level of comfort.
Claudia N. Lombardo is an attorney at Axley Brynelson, LLP. Her practice includes personal injury law, bicycle accident injuries, medical malpractice defense, stockbroker malpractice, insurance litigation, and criminal defense. She can be reached at (608) 283-6744 or clombardo@axley.com.
Categories: Blogs
Outed Vets Get Benefits for California Domestic Partners
Diversity Insight - Sun, 02/14/2010 - 21:08
The Commission on the Status of Women is a state agency founded in 1965 to study issues affecting women and to advise the California Legislature and state agencies on inequities in laws, practices, and conditions that affect women. The commission asked the California attorney general to respond to two inquiries regarding the eligibility of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered veterans to obtain state-funded veteran benefits. The commission estimates there are over 137,000 such veterans residing in California. On December 31, 2009, the attorney general issued an opinion letter that addressed the commission’s concerns.
California Vets Entitled to Benefits Regardless of Sexual Orientation
One of the issues raised by the commission was whether otherwise eligible military veterans who live in California could receive state-funded veteran benefits if they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered. The confusion arose from federal legislation passed in 1994 titled Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the Armed Forces, more widely known as the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy.” Under that policy, members of the armed forces “shall be separated” from their military service if they have:
- engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited another to engage in a homosexual act;
- stated that they are homosexual or bisexual or used words to that effect; or
- married or attempted to marry someone known to be of the same biological sex.
If someone is discharged from the military because of a violation of the policy, the discharge is usually characterized as an “honorable discharge” or “under honorable conditions,” assuming there are no other aggravating circumstances. Given the military’s ability to discharge someone on the basis of sex or sexual orientation, there was concern among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered veterans about whether they could obtain state-funded veteran benefits once discharged from the military.
The attorney general concluded that despite the federal policy, California can’t deny state-funded veteran benefits to such veterans. The attorney general relied on a section from California’s Government Code that generally states that “no person in the State of California shall, on the basis of their race, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, color, or disability,” be unlawfully discriminated against under any state-funded program, by any state agency, or under any program or activity that receives financial assistance from the state. The term “sex” is defined to include transgendered individuals. Accordingly, the attorney general concluded that based on California’s Government Code, veterans residing in California are entitled to state-funded veteran benefits, regardless of their sexual orientation, if they have been honorably discharged or discharged under honorable conditions from the military.
Domestic Partners Entitled to Benefits
The second issue raised by the commission was whether veterans’ registered domestic partners are entitled to the same benefits that spouses of military veterans receive. To respond to that question, the attorney general analyzed the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 (DPRRA) and relevant portions of California’s Family Code. Those sources state that properly registered domestic partners who have filed a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the secretary of state are entitled to the full range of legal rights, protections, and benefits as those that are extended to spouses.
The attorney general also reviewed the California Superior Court case of Strauss v. Horton. In that recent case, the court held that the passage of Proposition 8 in California created a valid amendment of the California Constitution to define that only a man and a woman can have their relationships designated as “marriage.” Although the court held that the constitution now defines marriage as being between only a man and a woman, it noted that same-sex couples could continue to receive all of the same rights and protections as married couples.
Based on the Strauss opinion as well as the relevant portions of the Family Code and the DPRRA, the attorney general concluded that domestic partners of veterans residing in California are entitled to the same state-funded veteran benefits to which spouses of veterans are otherwise entitled. Attorney General’s Opinion (AG Opn. 08-801, 12/31/09).
Bottom Line
This opinion letter by the attorney general reemphasizes that discrimination against individuals on the basis of their sex and/or sexual orientation is prohibited in California. Although the letter focused on state-funded veteran rights, it does provide guidance for employers as well. You should make employment-related decisions without regard to an employee’s sex, perceived sex, or sexual orientation, including transgender status. Additionally, you should offer the same benefits to properly registered domestic partners as you offer to employees’ spouses. Equal and consistent treatment of employees is the key to avoiding discrimination claims.
Jennifer Barrera is an associate at Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger LLP in Sacramento, California. She specialized in labor and employment litigation for management (including all forms of discrimination and harassment, wrongful discharge and wage and hour litigation), employer advice and counseling. She may be reached at jbarrera@cdflaborlaw.com.
Categories: Blogs
Outback to Pay $19 Million for Sex Bias
Diversity Insight - Sun, 02/14/2010 - 21:04
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $19 million and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a major class-action lawsuit alleging sex discrimination against thousands of women at hundreds of its corporately owned restaurants nationwide.
According to the EEOC, Outback discriminated against female employees with respect to the terms and conditions of employment and denied women equal opportunities for advancement. In the lawsuit, the agency alleged that female employees hit a glass ceiling at Outback and couldn’t get promoted to higher-level profit-sharing management positions. It also alleged that the women were denied favorable job assignments, particularly in kitchen management ― a requirement for consideration for top management jobs in the restaurants.
In addition to providing monetary relief, Outback agreed to a four-year consent decree that requires it to:
- institute an online application system for employees interested in managerial and other supervisory positions;
- employ an HR executive in a newly created position of “vice president of people”;
- for a period of at least two years, employ an outside consultant to monitor compliance with the terms of the decree and analyze data from the online application system to determine whether women are being provided equal opportunities for promotion; and
- report every six months to the EEOC on carrying out the terms of the decree.
The $19 million in monetary relief will be administered through a claims process in which an administrator will send letters to all female workers employed at corporately owned Outback restaurants from 2002 to the present who have at least three years of tenure. EEOC v. Outback Steakhouse of Florida, Inc., et al., DCCO, Case No. 06-cv-01935.
Teens Recover $620,000 on Sexual Harassment Claim
Following a five-day trial in federal court in Baltimore, two teens recovered $620,000 from their Eastern Shore employer, T.L. Morris Seafood, on their claims of assault and battery and sexual harassment. According to the testimony at trial, the president of T.L. Morris allegedly harassed the teens at work by making numerous inappropriate oral and physical advances. The two teens were hired to offload crabs from boats, clean and sort the catches, and stack inventory in cold-storage loading trucks.
The jury awarded them $120,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages, to be split evenly. The court has yet to rule on the employer’s posttrial requests to set aside the jury’s findings. Cory Adams and Tyler Bennett v. Timothy Morris, et al., DC Md., Case No. 08-02494, 08-02405, Jury Verdict December 11, 2009.
Whirlpool to Pay More than $1 Million for Harassing a Black Female Worker
The district court in Nashville, Tennessee, has entered judgment in the amount of $1,073,261 against Whirlpool Corporation in a race and sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of Carlotta Freeman, an African American former employee at the company’s LaVergne, Tennessee, facility.
The suit, filed by the EEOC, alleged that the appliance manufacturing giant failed to protect Freeman from persistent harassment by a Caucasian male coworker, which ultimately resulted in her being physically assaulted by him.
Following a bench trial, the court awarded her $773,261 in back pay and front pay and an additional $300,000 in compensatory damages for nonmonetary injuries, the maximum of amount allowed under federal law.
During the four-day trial, the evidence showed that over a period of two months, Freeman reported escalating offensive comments and gestures by a male coworker before he physically assaulted her. Although four levels of Whirlpool management were allegedly aware of the escalating harassment, none took effective steps to stop it. As a result, the employee suffered devastating permanent mental injuries. EEOC v. Whirlpool Corporation, DC Tn.,Civil Action No. 3:06-0593.
Categories: Blogs
Women’s History Month: March 2010
Diversity Insight - Sun, 02/14/2010 - 21:00
National Women’s History Month’s roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Here are some facts from the U.S. Census Bureau about women in the workplace:
- In 2008, the median annual earnings of women 15 or older who worked year-round, full time was $35,745, down from $36,451 in 2007 (after adjusting for inflation). Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.
- Women-owned businesses garnered more than $939 billion in revenue in 2002. There were 116,985 women-owned businesses with receipts of $1 million or more.
- There were nearly 6.5 million women-owned businesses in 2002. Women owned 28 percent of all nonfarm businesses; 916,657 of these were employer firms.
- More than 7.1 million are employed by women-owned businesses. There were 7,231 women-owned businesses with 100 or more employees, generating $274 billion in gross receipts.
- Nearly one in three women-owned businesses operated in health care and social assistance and other services, such as personal services and repair and maintenance. Women owned 72 percent of social assistance businesses and just over half of nursing and residential care facilities. Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 38 percent of women-owned business revenue.
- In California, women own 13 percent of businesses. California had the most women-owned businesses at 870,496. New York was second with 505,077 or 8 percent of all women-owned businesses. Texas was third in number with 468,705, accounting for 7 percent of all women-owned businesses.
- In 2008, 59 percent of females 16 and older participated in the labor force, representing about 72 million women.
- Thirty-eight percent of females 16 or older who work in management, professional and related occupations, compared with 32 percent of males.
- There are 23.8 millionfemale workers in educational services, health care, and social assistance industries. More women worked in this industry group than in any other. Within this industry group, 11.9 million worked in the health care industry, 9.1 million in educational services and 2.7 million worked in the social assistance industry.
- There is a 67 percent chance that your taxes will be prepared by a woman, as this was the percentage of tax preparers who were women in 2008. In addition, 72 percent of travel agents were women.
- There were 99,000female police officers across the country in 2008. In addition, there were about 14,000 women firefighters, 349,000 lawyers, 267,000 physicians and surgeons, and 36,000 pilots. (Note: Number of pilots pertains to 2007.)
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