By Lorie Hailey
The Lane Report
While those who lost their jobs in the economic downturn have struggled to find employment, those whose jobs were spared also have suffered. Longer hours for the same or less pay, fewer resources and higher expectations from employers are just a few of the demands workers faced after businesses laid off almost 9 million employees.
Now, reports USA Today, workers are striking back in court.
Since the height of the recession in 2008, more workers across the nation have been suing employers under federal and state wage-and-hour laws. The number of lawsuits filed last year was up 32 percent vs. 2008.
Employees’ main grievances were that they had to work more than 40 hours a week without overtime by being forced to work off the clock, having their jobs misclassified as exempt from overtime requirements, or by having work bleed into their personal time because of the use of smartphones and other technology. READ THE FULL STORY
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It’s no wonder workers have are turning to lawsuits. With more work to do and less time to do it, employees ofter are eating lunch at their desks instead of taking a break, reports the Louisville Courier Journal.
Only a third of American workers say they take a lunch break, according to a Web survey conducted last year by Right Management, a human resources consulting firm. The survey also found that 65 percent of workers eat at their desks or don’t take a break at all. READ THE FULL STORY
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Best Buy on Saturday announced the locations of 50 stores that it is closing this year, including seven in California, six in Illinois and six in the company’s home state of Minnesota. Kentucky will keep its stores, reports USA Today.
The struggling electronics chain said last month that it would close some of its so-called big box stores, cut 400 corporate jobs and trim $800 million in costs. Best Buy plans to open 100 smaller, more profitable Best Buy Mobile stores. READ THE FULL STORY
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After a rollercoaster week on the stock market last week, investors may be wondering if this quarter will build on the blockbuster gains from the start of the year or wipe them away.
The Associated Press says history suggests the winning streak will continue.
In the past 30 years, strong quarters like the one that ended in March have tended to be followed by more gains — smaller gains, usually, but gains nonetheless. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Federal Communications Commission’s investigation into Google’s Street View, a project to photograph and map the inhabited world one block at a time, has been left unresolved, reports the New York Times.
The FCC censured Google for obstructing an inquiry into the Street View project, which had collected Internet communications from potentially millions of unknowing households as specially equipped cars drove slowly by, the paper says.
A report over the weekend from federal regulators said the probe is at a standstill because a critical participant in the investigation, the Google engineer in charge of the project, cited his Fifth Amendment right and declined to talk. READ THE FULL STORY
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You may enjoy paying a lower amount for e-books on Amazon, by the online retailer’s pricing been a constant thorn in the sides of publishers, reports the New York Times.
The Educational Development Corporation, saying it was fed up with Amazon’s scorched-earth tactics, announced at the end of February that it would remove all its titles from the retailer’s virtual shelves. That eliminated at a stroke $1.5 million in annual sales, a move that could be a significant hit to the 46-year-old EDC’s bottom line, the newspaper says. READ THE FULL STORY
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