BizAnalyst Network

Coastal States Reach Across Borders To Deliver Jobless Benefits
Coastal area unemployment officials are putting on hip boots to wade into the enormous job of delivering disaster unemployment assistance benefits to Hurricane Katrina victims. State officials are working to deliver two kinds of benefits: disaster benefits for those whom Katrina left jobless, and regular jobless benefits for those who were already collecting unemployment benefits when displaced by the storm. (More on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina elsewhere in this issue of HR Week.)

Legislatures Struggle To Eliminate Legal Impediments to HSAs
Some HR professionals may not know that, in deciding whether to offer health savings accounts to employees, they need to take into account whether their state laws allow them to function in the way Congress intended when it set the HSA ball rolling in December 2003. (SHRM Members Only)

Labor Department Continues To Clarify White-Collar Exemptions
In three opinion letters, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division in August addressed aspects of its regulations covering the white-collar exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) minimum wage and overtime requirements.
(SHRM Members Only)

Report: Subsidy May Not Prevent Retiree Drug Benefits from Fading
A new prescription benefits subsidy program created by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 could have a minimal impact on stemming the number of employers and health plan sponsors that plan to reduce health care benefits offered to retirees, a new report from the Congressional Research Service concludes.
(SHRM Members Only)

NLRB's No-Fraternization Decision Fuels Cyber-Heatwave
A recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) upholding an employer's rule against off-duty fraternizing among employees raised the temperature in the blogosphere this summer. It's just the sort of issue likely to stir up the online ire of labor, lefties and libertarians like.
(SHRM Members Only)

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Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer
Harvard Business School Professor Michael Roberto shows you how to stimulate honest, constructive dissent and skepticism, use it to improve decisions and then align your entire organization to fully support those decisions. Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer offers powerful new insights into managing teams, mitigating risk, even promoting ethics through effective governance. Drawing on his extensive research on decision-making, Roberto shows how to build real consensus that leads to action.

HURRICANE KATRINA: THE AFTERMATH
Hurricane Katrina: HR's Response
As a service to our members, many of whom work with employees personally affected by the storm and floods, SHRM has posted a resource page, with links to news, resources for getting help and charities assisting victims of the disaster. This page is open to all at www.shrm.org/issues/hurricane

Hundreds of HR Professionals Respond to Red Cross Call
The response to a call by the Red Cross call for HR practitioners to help the disaster relief organization assist victims of Hurricane Katrina was so strong -- more than 700 applications -- that the Red Cross has decided for now to hold off from accepting any additional applications for volunteers working as HR staff relations associates at its on-site disaster center in Baton Rouge, La.  

Employers Convert Unused Worker Leave into Katrina Aid
Employers may establish programs that let workers donate their accrued leave in exchange for their employer's cash payments to tax-exempt organizations providing relief for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department announced at a news conference Sept. 8.  

Homeland Security Eases Employee Verification Rules
Government agencies and private employers already have started to open temporary relief jobs for storm victims, and now the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it won't sanction employers for hiring evacuees who are unable to provide documentation normally required by the federal law.  

Job Sites Amass Online for Hurricane-Displaced Workers
Connecting able-bodied, displaced workers to readily available jobs is a daunting task, in part because of the fractured communications infrastructure of the Gulf Coast. As such, many crucial communication ties have been formed on the Internet, which is also proving to be a key source for employment information. 

Employers Ponder Options for Getting Workers Paid
Technology has come to the relief of many businesses struggling to carry out the most basic of workplace activities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Share Your Experiences
How has your organization assisted its employees who were personally affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath? Or, what has your organization done to encourage or facilitate donations for disaster relief? Please share your experiences with your fellow HR practitioners on the Hurricane Katrina home page -- and read about what your colleagues around the country are doing.

HR MAGAZINE
ADEA: Prevention, Not Panic
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees can bring an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) claim challenging an employer's neutral practice that has a disproportionately negative impact on persons age 40 and above. As a result, workers can sue on the theory that their employer's actions caused unintentional age discrimination, otherwise known as disparate impact. But the high court also ruled that employers can overcome such suits by proving that the practice in dispute is based on a reasonable factor other than age.