Supreme Court Limits Age-Bias Suits
According to a ruling last week by the Supreme Court, state employees cannot sue for age bias in federal court. The court said protection against age discrimination is not in the same category as bias based on race, national origin, religion or sex. "Older persons...have not been subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment," the opinion held.

Telecommuters Are Not Worried About Safety Rules
The Labor Department's decision last week not to enforce safety standards for home offices, as had previously been announced, is not a problem for most telecommuters, analysts say. Government regulations would not be more helpful, telecommuters say, than using simple common sense. Meanwhile, those companies that are establishing telecommuting programs say they are already taking safety measures into account.

Labor Department Denies Discouraging Stock Options for Hourly Workers
Hot on the heels of its telecommuter-safety flip-flop, the Labor Department has responded to human resources executives who have complained that the agency discouraged companies from offering stock options to workers who are paid by the hour. A Labor Department spokesperson said the agency is in favor of giving all workers access to innovative forms of compensation. The criticism arose after a company was advised that they did not need to include stock option programs when calculating overtime.

More Workers Donate Sick Time
Donating unused sick-leave days to a coworker who's experiencing a long-term health crisis is slowly catching on, say workplace trend experts. Sick-leave donation policies are more common in government offices, which are likely to be unionized, than at private companies, which tend to have a "use it or lose it" approach to time off. A poll of 1,000 employers by Hewitt Associates found that only 2% of companies allow workers to use their own sick time later.