Instacart has agreed to pay $5 million to resolve U.S. government allegations that its recruitment for permanent labor certification (PERM) positions favored temporary-visa holders and disadvantaged U.S. workers, the Justice Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced October 20. Investigators said Instacart required applicants for PERM roles to mail their applications, while its usual process…
Tens of thousands of California state employees walked off the job on October 21 in the first statewide strike by their union, SEIU Local 1000, after contract negotiations stalled. The union represents more than 100,000 workers across state agencies, including nurses, auditors, custodians and office staff. Picketing took place in cities across California, according to…
Brazil’s Congress promulgated a constitutional amendment on October 16 establishing a five-day working week and a 40-hour maximum, down from 44 hours, without reducing pay. The change is scheduled to take effect within two months. The amendment replaces the common schedule of six days worked followed by one day off with five working days and…
TalentNeuron announced new agentic AI features for its workforce-decision assistant Synapse on October 14, saying the tools were available to customers. The company says Synapse can coordinate specialist agents covering hiring, compensation, labor-market trends, competitors, locations and employer brand. The agents conduct multi-step analysis, with a master agent combining their outputs into a presentation or…
BMW’s internal HR portal was overwhelmed after the automaker emailed employees in Germany about individual voluntary severance offers on October 8, Handelsblatt reported the following day. About 40,000 eligible employees could access personalised offers, according to a report citing German automotive trade coverage. That figure refers to access to the programme, not to employees who…
Workday announced AI agent capabilities for hiring, payroll, accounting and compliance on October 13 at its Workday Rising event in Las Vegas. The company said the tools are designed to monitor workflows and carry out routine tasks, with customers able to determine which actions can happen autonomously and which need review or approval. The Talent…
Paychex’s SixFifty has launched an agentic HR compliance specialist that can answer employment-law questions and perform multi-step compliance tasks, the company announced Oct. 13. The tool can draft or update employee handbooks and policies, distribute labor-law posters and new-hire notices, provision required training, and track employee acknowledgments. SixFifty’s standalone customers and trial users could access…
Netflix plans to eliminate roughly 6% of its global workforce, or about 1,000 jobs, in organizational changes announced by co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters to employees on October 14. Product, technology, legal and human-resources teams are expected to be among the most affected, according to the leaders’ memo. They framed the reductions as a…
Nearly all HR leaders surveyed by workforce technology provider isolved said their teams are viewed as strategic, even as repetitive employee questions and skills gaps constrain their capacity. The company released its 2026 HR Leaders Report on Oct. 14. The report is based on a second-quarter survey of 1,005 U.S. HR decision-makers in management roles…
Kroger plans to eliminate about 3,000 corporate positions over the next three years, CEO Greg Foran told employees in a memo on October 12. The cuts would affect roughly 37% of the company’s approximately 8,200 corporate roles. The company said it expects to provide details about which positions will be affected in the coming months.…