Workers accusing Apple, Google and two other Silicon Valley companies of conspiring to hold down salaries were trying Monday to win approval of a $415 million settlement from a U.S. judge who rejected an earlier deal as too low, Reuters reported.

The plaintiffs claim that Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe Systems agreed to avoid poaching each other’s employees, thus limiting job mobility and, as a result, keeping a lid on salaries.

The Reuters report says the antitrust class-action suit has been closely watched because of the possibility that big damages might be awarded and for the opportunity to peek into the world of some of the United States’ elite tech firms.

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Imperative Information Group offers a complimentary on-demand webinar on issues that employers should also consider when deciding how to manage their official social media presence and respond to employees’ social media activities.

On its website, the company says social media offers useful tools for employers to build communities and attract talent.  It can also help to engage employees if used correctly.  However, there are public relations, equal employment opportunity, and National Labor Relations Act issues that employers should also consider when deciding how to manage their official social media presence and respond to employees’ social media activities.

The webinar covers a number of social media issues that may arise throughout the employee life cycle and discuss ways to plan for them.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Kilgore Law has posted an article by Bob Goodman titled “Employment Law and Drone Surveillance, What We Have to Look Forward To, A Work of Fiction.”

It was easier before the Supreme Court reconsidered its 2015 decision that drone surveillance by private employers of their employees was not illegal because it was not governmental, the article says. Now, in 2018, according to the Supreme Court, there had to be some reason to believe an employee was doing something against the employer’s interest to justify drone surveillance of that employee. That was a low standard, about as far from probable cause as you could get, but it still required a form to be filled out for any drone surveillance, even if it only involved the employee’s office or cubicle, and not also following the employee around all day and into his home.

The heaviest requirements were, in fact, imposed when a drone to follow the employee home was at issue.

Read the article.

Imperative Information Group has posted a free on-demand webinar considering the federal, state, and local issues surrounding employers’ evaluation of candidates’ criminal history information.

In order to effectively and consistently evaluate the criminal histories of prospective and current employees, it is important that employers consider which criminal offenses are relevant to specific jobs, Imperative Information Group says on its website.  Additionally, the age and frequency of offenses should also be considered when evaluating relevancy.

However, Mike Coffey, SPHR, president of Imperative Information Group, maintains that criminal records, even those that are not directly related to a particular position’s risk factors, may still be relevant in selecting the right candidate.

In addition to discussing issues surrounding employers’ evaluation of candidates’ criminal history information, Coffey will also review tools for developing and documenting policies concerning the impact of individuals’ criminal histories on their employment eligibility.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The new Republican majority in the Senate is turning up the pressure on the National Labor Relations Board, with a series of hearings and legislative attacks against policies that make it easier for workers to unionize, reports The Hill.

The hearings will put a spotlight on an agency increasingly held in disdain by Republicans, while also offering a platform for the GOP to cozy up to the business groups that have assailed the labor board as blatantly pro-union. Atop the GOP’s agenda is an effort to beat back regulations that would speed up the process by which employees vote to form a union, according to the report in The Hill.

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Draft rules from the U.S. Department of Labor clarify how the government will investigate pay disparities between men and women, according to a report in the Hartford Courant.

“It just puts contractors on notice there’s going to be a broad review of their compensation practices,” said Dean Singewald II, an associate at the Stamford office of Epstein Becker Green, who defends government contractors around the country in Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs reviews.

That department, in the U.S. Department of Labor, is the one that published the notice of new rules Jan. 28. Contractors or other members of the public will have a chance to critique the new rules through March 31, the Courant reports.

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A group of franchise business operators launched a coalition to lobby Congress in an ongoing battle to prevent franchisors from being considered “joint employers” with franchisees, reports Nation’s Restaurant News.

The Coalition to Save Local Businesses was created with support from the International Franchise Association, or IFA, which has been at the forefront of attempts to prevent a shift in the joint-employer definition by the National Labor Relations Board.

The report says that coalition leaders, as a first step, plan to educate lawmakers on how a shift of the joint-employer definition would impact franchise business owners.

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Susan K. Hatmaker, Esq. of Hatmaker Law Group will present a free webinar discussing Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation and Other Workplace Cases, Trends and Administrative Enforcement Strategies.

The event will be Wednesday, March 18, beginning at noon Pacific time.

Participants can join this webinar in their office or conference room with colleagues.

Hatmaker Law Group’s webinars provide up-to-date information on important California employment law issues for employers, owners, managers, accountants, attorneys and human resource professionals.

Register for the webinar.

Waits for work-based permanent residence could become easier — if not any shorter — under recent Obama administration changes overshadowed by more controversial steps for immigrants without legal status, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But employers in Minnesota and elsewhere say the changes don’t do enough to meet their demand for more work visas and green cards for college-educated professionals.

“Talent shortages, particularly in the high-tech industry, have been the focus of intense debate and dueling research findings for years,” the Star Tribune says. “Administration critics have pounced on Obama’s changes to accuse him of kowtowing to business interests.”

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Applying ordinary principles of contract law, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Sixth Circuit’s ruling that provisions in expired collective bargaining agreements created a right to lifetime contribution-free health care benefits for retirees, their surviving spouses, and their dependents, according to a paper posted by Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.

The court disapproved of the reasoning in the Sixth Circuit’s 2009 decision in International Union, United Auto, Aerospace, & Agricultural Implement Workers of Am. v. Yard-Man, Inc. (Yard-Man).

The report says that retirees brought a class action against the employer after it announced that they would be required to make health care contributions. The retirees contended that the promise of “full Company contribution towards the cost of [health care] benefits” in collective bargaining agreements provided them with a vested right to receive lifetime health care benefits in retirement without any contributions.

Read the report.

Bloomberg BNA’s Pension and Benefits blog reports that employers might begin drawing back on using wellness programs if they don’t get clarifying regulations on the treatment of financial incentives under the Americans with Disabilities Act from the EEOC, witnesses said at a Senate committee hearing.

Both Republican and Democrats spoke in favor of wellness programs at the Jan. 29 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, but said that recent actions by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against employers that use financial incentives in their programs may hinder their further growth, because employers that comply with the Affordable Care Act’s provisions on these incentives could find themselves out of compliance with the ADA, the blog reports.

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As human resources has matured into a strategic business function, technology has become its backbone, according to a report at HumanResourcesOnline.net. This is particularly true within recruitment, where technology captures data about the complete lifecycle of talent – from the interview stages, to hiring and induction, and for performance management and exits.

Because many companies set aside large budgets and build entire teams around finessing their digital footprint, the business’s online presence cannot be undermined. How you are perceived online can determine the kind of talent you attract and acquire.

As the talent landscape becomes increasingly competitive, organizations need to strengthen their focus in these areas to ensure they’re top of mind of the best candidates, the site reports.

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Marsh USA offers a free on-demand webinar discussing the changes in workers’ compensation in 2014 and what to expect in 2015.

Experts from Marsh’s Workers’ Compensation Center of Excellence and Noreen Olson, workers’ compensation claims manager, Starbucks, held a one-hour webcast and provided insights on key developments from the past year and what’s in store for 2015.

The panel of risk experts discussed:

• Key 2014 developments in workers’ compensation.
• Key trends and issues to watch in 2015.
• Updates on pricing and capacity as you plan for the year ahead.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Benefit Express has posted a free on-demand webinar on dealing with health care reform as it relates to temporary workers.

Topics include: when temporary employees become your employees, the factors the government uses to determine employment status, the steps you can take to avoid these employees becoming your employees, and consequences under Health Care Reform if it is determined that they are your employees.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The United Steelworkers Union called for its refinery workers to stage their largest walkout in more 30 years Sunday, saying its negotiations with Shell Oil Co. broke down less than two weeks after they began, the Associated Press reports.

The union asked about 3,800 workers at nine refineries mostly in Texas and California to strike shortly after their previous contract expired after midnight.

The AP reports that the call for a strike happened after United Steelworkers, or USW, rejected Shell’s fourth contract offer. The union said Shell refused to provide a counter offer and that the company’s representatives had left the bargaining table.

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Equifax Workforce Solutions will present a free webinar about the challenges that come up in managing the Form I-9 process for remote new hires as well as 2015 trends in worksite enforcement.

The webinar will be Thursday, Feb. 12, at 12 p.m. Central time.

Montserrat Miller, a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory, LLP will discuss I-9 challenges for remote hires and also provide her forecast for 2015 trends in immigration issues that affect employers and their compliance with the Form I-9 and E-Verify requirements.

Miller will be joined by Chad Whittenberg, Senior Director of Product Management for I-9 & E-Verify, for a discussion about best practices in managing the remote I-9 process.

Topics:
–Remote hires – completion of the Form I-9, physical inspection of the documents presented by new hires and employees and tips for improving compliance during the hiring process
–High risk areas of the I-9 process for authorized representatives with little experience
–States’ issuance of driver’s licenses to undocumented residents and implications for the Form I-9
–Issues that can come up during the E-Verify process due to employees’ use of MyE-Verify
–Developments related to the President’s executive action on immigration and what it means for the workforce and I-9 compliance
–Status of immigration reform on Capitol Hill; and 2015 trends in Form I-9 and E-Verify compliance.

Register for the webinar.

Portland, Oregon-based Daimler Trucks North America reached a $2.4 million settlement with six former employees who last year filed civil rights complaints alleging violent threats and racism in the workplace, reports The Oregonian.

An investigation included interviews with more than 60 current and former Daimler employees and supervisors and review of hundreds of documents pertaining to the Portland truck manufacturing plant’s operations.

Daimler agreed to compensate employees for damages and comply with measures to ensure workers are free of harassment and discrimination in the workplace, according to The Oregonian‘s report. Among the measures, the company will install a civil rights complaint hotline for workers and train at least two managers to conduct internal investigations addressing any future incidents.

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National Council on Compensation Insurance offers a free on-demand webinar exploring the workers compensation implications of the fracking industry, as well as federal and state legislative and regulatory issues.

On its website, NCCI says oil and gas issues, especially hydraulic fracturing (fracking), have been receiving increased attention in the legislatures and media. Fracking is the process of enabling the extraction of natural gas from shale deep below ground.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

SilkRoad has posted a free on-demand webinar offering a look into the strategic practices of more than 300 HR professionals as told by their responses to SilkRoad’s recent Strategic HR Survey.

The webinar covers topics such as:

• Do your HR strategies align with company goals?

• How do you measure the effectiveness of human resources on the organization’s bottom-line?

• Are you meeting with top-level executives to establish guidelines for HR planning?

• Have you aligned workforce plans with individual departmental goals?

• How frequently do you measure and benchmark HR initiatives?

• Are you developing a reactive or strategic HR practice?

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Courts weighing whether union retirees have vested lifetime health-care benefits should apply ordinary contract principles, rather than special inferences or presumptions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, Bloomberg BNA reports.

The unanimous Jan. 26 opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas is largely a win for employers, which may now have more freedom to alter, reduce or eliminate the health-care benefits they provide to retired union workers.

Bloomberg BNA says the court invalidated what has become known as the Yard-Man inference, a judicial inference applied by the retiree-friendly U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to find that retiree health-care benefits are vested for life in the absence of specific language to the contrary in a plan document or collective bargaining agreement.

Read the story.