The Complete Guide to Human Resources & the Law, 2001 Supplement

I purchased this book a class. It is a very good book that explains all workplace laws.

Human Resource managers and specialists have a lot of legal material to learn. They have to keep up with the latest changes in the laws that affect the way they handle employees and the way they administer benefits. This guide, updated each year since its initial release, is designed to help human resource personnel find the answers to legal questions. The most striking feature of this guide is its length. It is more than 1,100 pages long and contains 43 chapters. It needs to be this way, of course, to encompass all of the different laws pertaining to human resource management. It covers most everything about HR one can imagine, from rules and regulations regarding hiring and terminating to laws covering sexual harassment and pension administration. Even though this book is a very good resource, there are still a few things you will not be able to find. The primary function of this reference guide is to provide an overview of the federal laws. Thus, many of the laws unique to the individual states are not discussed here. There are a few exceptions, but there are many state- specific questions this guide will not be able to answer. This is what happened to me one day when I consulted this book for an answer regarding workmen's compensation. It didn't have what I needed to know about my state, so I had to look elsewhere. Still, it pointed me in the right direction so it did have its use. The organization of this book is ok, but some things about it are a little cumbersome. The table of contents, for example, doesn't include page numbers. Instead, it references the various pages based on the chapter number and the subsection (for example, "23.02" means turn to chapter 23, and then look for the second section). I think it would be better if it showed the page number. There are plenty of references in this guide to specific court cases, pointing out new decisions and how they were decided. Human Resource laws change all the time, which is why a book like this becomes outdated quickly. Fortunately, the author of this handy guide updates it every year with a new release. It's a large, bulky book that may not be organized in the most efficient way, but is still invaluable as reference guide for HR personnel.

Your a teacher and don't know what a Rabbi Trust is? Shame on you. Look it up and learn it and stop thinking everyone is Anti-Semitic. As a Jewish man I take offense to your comment.

I am using this book for a master's level personnel law course. It covers all the topics quite thoroughly. It might be useful as a quick selective reference tool for HR administrators unfamiliar with one or more of the specialty areas. Some chapters (such as the one on benefits and the one on pensions) might benefit from another look at organization of the material. However, most of the information is accurate, if necessarily streamlined in many areas. Since personnel law now covers several deeply specialized areas, this is not surprising.Stylistically, the book's sentences are jam-packed with information. This might prove difficult reading for some. In a few cases, a series of issues will be "hidden" by a single sentence that is oversimplified, but this is apparent only to a reader who is familiar with the field. The advantage is that the author has made a very creditable attempt to address all the issues. The author generally avoids drawing temporal or one-sided conclusions, which may mislead in a field that is fraught with disputes. I appreciate the even-handedness of this approach.One small but annoying detail. On page 220 is a reference to a "rabbi trust". I took offense at the use of this term in the book, without quotation marks. I think later editions should avoid or explain the use of language which is apparently bigoted. In fact, I will recommend that my students not use this term because I can offer no good explanation for its continuance.