Portland couple use Change.org to petition against brutal actions of ESCO Corporation

Cancer victim and family use social media platforms to bring awareness to the public and fight back.

Portland, OR  (PRBuzz.com) December 11, 2012 — One family in Portland is looking for justice. Paul and Holly Hicks were shown no mercy or compassion when the company that Paul worked for, ESCO Corporation, promptly removed him from his position. The family now has no way of continuing treatment for Holly’s cancer. The couple is petitioning the company to provide Paul, and employees like him, with the unemployment benefits that they are denying.

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Women Haven’t Gained A Larger Share Of Corporate Board Seats In Seven Years

In addition to grappling with a persistent pay gap, working women also have to deal with extreme difficulty ascending to powerful corporate positions, according to a report by the research organization Catalyst. As Bryce Covert explained at The Nation:

Women held just over 14 percent of executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies this year and 16.6 percent of board seats at the same. Adding insult to injury, an even smaller percent of those female executive officers are counted among the highest earners—less than 8 percent of the top earner positions were held by women. Meanwhile, a full quarter of these companies simply had no women executive officers at all and one-tenth had no women directors on their boards. [...]
Did this year represent a step forward? Not even close. Women’s share of these positions went up by a mere half of a percentage point or less last year. Even worse, 2012 was the seventh consecutive year in which we haven’t seen any growth in board seats and the third year of stagnation in the C-suite.

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What to Do If You are Discriminated Against in the Workplace?

Dealing with discrimination in the workplace is a stressful situation. Unfortunately, it is also often stressful to determine how to respond to the discrimination. But by understanding how to respond to discrimination and the appropriate steps to report the discrimination, you can work to take control of a bad situation and to correct the problem.

Documentation

Many employees fail to take action after an act of discrimination takes place, hoping that the problem will go away. Regardless of whether an employee decides to take immediate action or wait to see if the problem continues, the employee should begin documenting the discriminatory acts. When documenting the discrimination, the employee should note what happened and who did it. The employee should also note the day and time of the event and any witnesses. Employees should understand that some laws require the reporting of the discriminatory act within a specific time period.

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Work it Out: Getting Along with Co-Workers

Whether it’s a co-worker who bulldozes us during staff meetings and shoots down every new idea, or several colleagues who make up a clique outsiders just can’t break into, we’ve all had to work with people we simply don’t like. They can turn a job you otherwise enjoy into your own daily personal hell.

Some perspective is in order. While your co-worker’s behavior may feel like a personal affront you did nothing to deserve, he or she may feel affronted, too, says Andy Selig, ScD, a management and organizational psychologist who often mediates tense workplace relations. “Most of the time, all the protagonists involved feel like victims,” he says.

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Why Co-Workers Don’t Like You

Your co-workers are judging you. Beneath a veneer of professional collegiality, they’re taking note of the mess on your desk, how loudly you chew, even your word choices.

Obviously, serious misconduct such as discrimination and harassment can lead to a job loss. But small irritants can hurt productivity and build walls between co-workers.

“Those little annoyances, like having a really sloppy work area or being a disgusting desk eater, can loom large,” says Charles Purdy, senior editor at jobs site Monster.com.

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Apple supplier Foxconn sees profits drop due to higher employee costs

Score one for human rights, zero for an Apple supplier’s bottom line. Foxconn parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry posted lower profits than usual in the first quarter of 2012 due to higher employee costs.

These costs are directly related to fair labor audits prompted by Apple. The manufacturer’s profit margin, while still robust, slid from 7.25 percent in 2011 to 4 percent in 2012.

At the beginning of the year, a bombshell report revealed Apple’s suppliers were engaging in wildly unfair labor practices, up to and including child labor and even slave labor. Other issues included non-payment or late payment of workers, environmental hazards, and worse.

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The Value of Investing in Employees Health

These days employees are often not bound by the 40-hour per week convention and work stress can extend well after you’ve clocked out. Although it is not the responsibility of employers to offer support to their workforce after hours, employees health during the work day is something that a company should concentrate on wherever possible.
There are certain responsibilities that companies should take on board with regard to health of employees.
The reasons employers might shy away from such practices is obviously because of the cost to the company. Providing various health-centred services for employees and promoting social wellness is not mandatory from a legal standpoint but studies have shown how this approach should invariably be a fruitful one. Employees are much more likely to increase productivity if they adopt a healthier lifestyle thanks to work initiatives.

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Here’s to the next half-century – It’s taking a long time, but things are getting better

“WOMEN ARE NOT at the top anywhere,” says Herminia Ibarra, a professor at the INSEAD business school near Paris. “Many get on the high-potential list and then languish there for ever.” That is broadly true not only in business but also in politics, academia, law, medicine, the arts and almost any other field you care to mention.

In parliaments across the world women on average hold just 20% of the seats (see chart 6), though again the Nordics do much better. In Finland—one of the first countries to give them the vote, in 1906—women have at various times held more than half the ministerial jobs. The prime minister one back was a woman and so is the current president, Tarja Halonen, the first female to hold the post. A lawyer, doughty fighter for women’s rights and single mother, she is nearing the end of her second and final term of office but would like to see another woman president soon: “Once is not enough.” Elsewhere too female political leaders are becoming less unusual—think of Germany’s Angela Merkel, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Australia’s Julia Gillard or Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf—but still far from common.

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Workers lament ‘unfair treatment’

WINDHOEK – Hochland Park Spar is again in the spotlight, after several of its employees alleged they are victims of racism and bad treatment by management.


Brigitte Zaire, a cashier at the Tops Bottle Store section of the store, claimed that she was unfairly suspended on January 13, for allegedly allowing another employee to work on her till.

The unauthorised employee would have put at risk the company’s money while compromising its standards, it is alleged.

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Australia: Employer’s conduct “inexplicable” and extensions of time for unfair dismissal application allowed

A recent decision of Fair Work Australia acknowledges that an extension of time may be given for an unfair dismissal application where there is inaction from the employer after the dismissal has taken effect. Employers should therefore consider what action needs to be taken should a dismissed employee question their dismissal within 14 days of the termination taking effect.

In the case of Paul Wybrott v Veolia Environmental Services (VES) (29 March 2012), Mr Wybrott made an application for unfair dismissal some 22 days after his employment with VES was terminated for serious misconduct. This was eight days beyond the 14-day time limit set out in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) for making such an application. However, despite the usual rigidity applied in such cases, Commissioner Bissett exercised her discretion and granted Mr Wybrott an appropriate extension of time for making the application given the reason for the delay and the actions taken by Mr Wybrott to dispute his dismissal.

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Employers engaged in anti-union activities, unfair labour practices *Draft national policy addresses archaic labour laws, but employers seen violating labour rights

While there is a need to reform archaic labour laws, enforcement must be strengthened as a matter of priority as workers are increasingly being discouraged from forming trade unions with employers resorting to anti-union activities and unfair labour practices, especially in the export processing zones, while threats to employment surface in the economy, a draft policy document spearheaded by the Senior Ministers’ Secretariat says.

The second draft of the proposed ‘National Policy on Human Resources and Employment’ was shared with a wide-range of stakeholders last week.

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Wobblies and unfair labor practices

We stand up against the boss, demanding change and stopping work. The boss fires us. We immediately mobilize, rushing to…the office of some government lawyer. What’s wrong with this picture?

When private sector employers in the United States break the law, workers can file what is known as an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Violations include threatening or retaliating against workers for lawful union activity or for acting as a group without a union, also known as “protected concerted activity.” When found guilty of a ULP, an employer may face various penalties, like an order to reinstate a fired worker with back pay.

There are many examples of the Wobblies using ULPs. The charges filed against Starbucks eventually led to a fired worker’s reinstatement. In Minneapolis, charges were filed against Jimmy John’s after a failed union election in 2010, and again last year when the company fired six union members. The NLRB nullified the election due to management’s illegal behavior. The illegal firing charges were won in court, but the employer appealed and the appeals process could take years.

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PL accuses government of treating workers unfairly

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo says government workers within the education sector were unfairly treated after being left in the dark over their employment security.

Labour spokesperson on education Evarist Bartolo said that the government treated employees within the Examinations Department and Matsec Board unjustly, by failing to keep them informed regarding their job security.

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Employment law reforms are licence to treat people badly – and still pay less

The government have already made it more difficult to claim unfair dismissal: an employee now needs two years’ service instead of one before they can bring a claim. This was no great surprise – it was two years from 1980 to 1999, when Labour reduced it to one year.

Then they considered doing away with unfair dismissal claims altogether and replacing them with “no fault dismissal” ie fixed compensation for dismissal, at a much lower level than present, without any need to establish unfairness. This was suggested in a report by the venture capitalist and Wonga investor Adrian Beecroft who happens to have given over half a million pounds to the Conservatives in the last five years.

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Court rules draughtsman was unfairly treated by employer

Datuk K.N. Segara, who led a three-man bench in allowing the appeal of former senior draughtsman Raja Abdul Rahman Raja Abdul Aziz for unfair dismissal, said private sector employees were only accorded protection under the Industrial Relations Act 1967.

He said once misconduct was proven in the industrial court, the tribunal must venture to determine whether the punishment of dismissal was warranted.

In Raja Abdul Rahman’s case, the court of appeal said his employer, Exxonmobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc, was unreasonable.

Segara said the right of employment of public sector workers was guaranteed under Article 135 of the Federal Constitution and Chapter D of the General Orders.

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Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low

A constant conservative charge against President Obama is that he is inherently anti-business. However, businesses keep defying the storyline by making larger and larger profits, rebounding nicely out of the Great Recession.

In the third quarter of this year, “corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago.” Corporations are currently making more as a percentage of the economy than they ever have since such records were kept. But at the same time, wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low, as this chart shows. (The red line is corporate profits; the blue line is private sector wages.):

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Can an Employer Dock my Pay?

As an employee, it’s natural to feel some fear about the security of your job or salary. Many workers worry that their salary will be docked for a number of reasons, such as turning up to work late, missing a meeting, a customer not paying and so forth.

While there are indeed certain situations in which an employer is legally allowed to dock your pay, there are also provisions in place to ensure employees are treated fairly and ethically.

In place is the Employment Rights Act 1996, which prevents “unlawful deduction from wages”. Should an employer breach the conditions within the Act, a worker would be legally allowed to make a claim with an employment tribunal regarding the unpaid money.

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Unfair treatment is not always illegal treatment

It is likely that readers in California hear a lot in the news about disgruntled employees who feel they are being treated unfairly and, as a result, bring a lawsuit against their employer. Often in these employee-related lawsuits, the employee ends up with a windfall in a final judgment against the employer.

These windfall cases are the ones that most often make the news. However, employers in California will be interested to hear about a recent case that did not end up so rosy for the employee.

A county sheriff in California recently filed a lawsuit for alleged retaliation and discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. He claimed that he had trouble getting along with his co-workers and that his partners were frequently asking for transfers. When he and one of his partners got into a heated argument that resulted in the two yelling at each other, he claimed he worked in a hostile environment. The lawsuit was filed shortly thereafter.

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Employment and Partnership law

Obtaining the right advice from a firm of solicitors that understands your needs is paramount in any legal situation. In terms of employment and partnership law, being able to access such advice at short notice may help resolve an issue before it escalates.

Employee rights is an area where legal knowhow is important and whether you are an employer or an employee, getting the right advice at the right time is vital for a satisfactory outcome to a dispute.

In so many walks of life, a reliable adage is “prevention is better than cure” and that applies in so many ways when it comes to employment law.

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Employment law: Unfair treatment at work

Unfair treatment at work is very stressful. I’ve been dealing with it for a while but I’m trying to do something about it. You have to  try and stand up for yourself and not accept any kind of treatment. The majority of cases detail discrimination though.  Discrimination occurs when an employee suffers unfavorable or unfair treatment due to their race, religion, national origin, disabled or veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. The first step for that is contacting EEO. EEO law stipulates that an employee who experiences discrimination can seek remedies including: Back pay, restoration of their old job (if they were fired or reassigned), a court order to stop the discrimination, compensation for pain and suffering.

My employer has failed to address my complaints properly against my supervisor’s conduct. They have been negligent  and allowed known stress-causing conditions to persist without taking reasonable measures to prevent them. My workplace is utterly intolerable and stressful. My life now surrounds my everyday workplace issues.

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