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LAWSUIT CHALLENGES UNTESTED AREA OF LAW: A
lawsuit filed in federal court in Connecticut by a former
Structured Settlement Investments employee is testing
an unsettled area of law that could set a precedent
for how companies handle personal e-mail at work, The
New York Times reports. In the Connecticut case,
Scott Sidell filed the lawsuit after discovering that
his employer was reading e-mails from his personal Yahoo!
account after he had left the company. The e-mails included
discussions between Sidell and his attorney about strategy
for winning an arbitration claim over his lost job.
Generally, courts have found that employers can monitor
e-mail on company computers, but courts also have recognized
greater privacy protections for e-mail messages sent
via Web-based accounts. To read more,
click here.
U.S.
SUPREME COURT TO CONSIDER PREGNANCY LEAVE CASE:
The high court agreed to review a case that could affect
thousands of women at or near retirement age, according
to the Washington Post. At issue is whether
the Pregnancy Discrimination Act should apply to women
who took pregnancy leave before 1979, when the law went
into effect. At the center of the case is Noreen Hulton,
who gave birth to her daughter in 1968, and due to surgery,
had to miss 240 days of work. The 74-year-old woman
contends that Pacific Bell, now AT&T, did not properly
factor in her pregnancy leave into her retirement and
other benefits. To read more,
click here.
U.S.
LAWMAKERS APPROVE ADA EXPANSION: The U.S.
House of Representatives last week approved the ADA
Amendments Act to broaden the scope of the Americans
with Disabilities Act, Business Insurance reports.
Supporters say the legislation would help reverse some
of the narrow coverage of the act – due in part to U.S.
Supreme Court decisions that have excluded many individuals
with cancer, epilepsy, muscular sclerosis, and diabetes.
To read more,
click here.
REPORT
FINDS ILLEGAL PRACTICES AT JUSTICE DEPT.:
A report released last week by the inspector general
at the U.S. Department of Justice says that the federal
agency used illegal screening criteria – political leanings
and ideology – as a way of hiring law school candidates
with conservative leanings into an elite recruitment
program, according to a recent New York Times
article. Meanwhile many qualified candidates were rejected
for the department's honors program due to liberal bias.
The report says those practices “constituted misconduct
and also violated the department’s policies and civil
service law that prohibit discrimination in hiring based
on political or ideological affiliations.” To read more,
click here.
MAKE
GENERATION GAPS IN THE WORKPLACE WORK FOR YOU:
Now that there are four generations in the workplace,
the Wall Street Journal say, many companies
are trying to find the right combination of tactics
to make the differences work to their advantage. And
some, like Novo Nordisk AS regional sales executive
Andrew Ajello, are finding the wisdom in an increasingly
popular management theory: To boost productivity, treat
workers of different ages differently. To read more,
click here.
THE SECRET TO GREAT
COMPANY GROWTH: When it comes to helping your
company grow, what's more important than your business
strategy? It’s getting the right people on board, according
to management guru and best-selling author Jim Collins.
And sometimes it means rethinking your existing staff,
according to a recent BusinessWeek article.
As business climates change, that star employee you
hired five years ago may no longer be the right fit
for the job. And the salesperson you promoted last year
may not be management material like you originally thought.
To be successful, businesses have to successfully manage
talent. Sometimes, that means making tough decisions.
For some tips on how match the right people to the right
jobs,
click here.
WORLDWIDE
AUTOMOTIVE REPORT PODCAST: Sales drop in June,
with some surprises. Auto companies ask for more time
to meet fuel economy rules. Is Michigan really a finalist
for a new VW plant? 
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have a related podcast at 
Before
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in upstate
New York laid off a group of workers in 1996, the government
contractor took several precautions to stay on the right
side of the law. But that was not enough to keep it
out of court. And based on a recent U.S. Supreme
Court ruling, it's not clear what actions it
should have taken to avoid being sued.
