The swiped computer contained the names, addresses and social security numbers of about 97,000 Starbucks employees.

A group of workers sued the company for negligence. One of the employees claimed a bank told him someone had tried to open a bank account using his name and SSN. The account was immediately closed. None of the other employees experienced any other signs of fraud.

Starbucks argued it couldn’t be held liable, because the employees didn’t suffer any actual consequences. The judge agreed and dismissed the case — without suffering any actual damages, the employees had no reason to sue.

The key to keeping the employees’ info from being misused and escaping liability: The company acted quickly. Shortly after the theft, Starbucks:

1. reported the crime to police
2. notified all affected employees and advised them to take steps to protect themselves, and
3. offered to pay for a year of credit monitoring services for all interested employees.

Cite: Kottner v. Starbucks

The three employers are Costco, Starbucks, and Whole Foods. They’ve hired former Clinton Administration attorney Lanny Davis to work the cloakrooms in Congress and spread the idea — which they’re calling “The Third Way.” Here are the three main parts  of the proposal:

• No card check or mandatory arbitration. Instead, there would be secret-ballot elections that would have to be conducted by a definite, ironclad date from the time a union petitions for an election.
• Union “equal access” to employees during working hours. Under unspecified conditions, union organizers would be able to make their case to workers during working hours — on the presumption that employers would be making their case against organizing.
• Tougher penalties for unfair labor practices. There would be no mandatory arbitration wherein contract terms are dictated — as is proposed in the EFCA now –  but it would apparently include an expedited timetable for negotiations.

Another group from the service industry is offering another compromise also with three parts:

• Unions get equal access to employees if 30% of employees sign cards.
• If a union succeeds in getting more than 50% of employees to sign cards, then it may petition the NLRB for an election to be conducted in 15 days.
• If a union succeeds in getting 70% of the employees to sign cards, then the union would be certified without a secret-ballot election (EFCA as currently drafted permits certification once more than 50% of employees sign cards).

Yes: 46%

No: 38%

Don’t have part-timers: 16%

Offering part-timers some type of benefits package has become popular as some companies try to attract nontraditional workers, such as retirees or some working parents who don’t want fulltime jobs but do want some perks.

Part-timers’ share of the workforce has been growing and is likely to continue growing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers putting in fewer than 35 hours per week accounted for 23.9 % of the workforce in 2007, up from 18.3 percent in 1996. A lot of companies that rely on part-timers, such as Starbucks and UPS, use their benefits packages to attract higher quality workers away from the competition.

Courtesy of careerbuilder.com, actual excuses given by the tardy (with equally silly commentary given by us):

1. “I got lost in the fog when I was rowing to work.”
(Presumably employed in London or on the HMS Bounty.)

2. “I wasn’t thinking and accidentally went to my old job.”
(Try the same thing tomorrow and stay there.)

3. “Someone stole my daffodils.”
(Now, that’s something all of us can relate to.)

4. “My ex-husband stole my car and I couldn’t drive to work.”
(So, if he has a car, why couldn’t he give you a lift?)

5. “My route to work was shut down by the presidential motorcade.”
(But, uh, the president isn’t in town.)

6. “I was indicted for securities fraud this morning.”
(Sorry, that one’s taken by Martha Stewart.)

7. “The line was too long at Starbucks.”
(We hope you picked up a job app while you were there.)

8. “I was trying to get my gun back from the police.”
(You just can never find a cop when you need one.)

9. “I didn’t have money for gas because all the pawn shops were closed.”
(We can see this being an ongoing problem, what with your now not owning a wristwatch.)