Compliance April 14, 2005

Oregon Supreme Court Nullifies 3,000 Same-Sex Marriages

April 14, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Oregon State Supreme Court has nullified almost 3,000 same-sex marriages done in one county, saying that a single county did not have jurisdiction on its own to take such action.
Reported by

>Although the court left the door open for the state Legislature to create a alternative to marriage for same-sex couples, the court ruled that because it is a matter of statewide concern, no one county could take unilateral action.

Multnomah County started permitting same-sex couples to marry a year ago, but officials there were stopped after six weeks by a state judge. However, in that time, 3,000 couples had married (See Judge Halts Oregon Same-Sex Marriages ).

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

>Last November, the residents of the state voted to approve a proposal that limited marriage to a union of one man and one woman, the court also noted. On top of this, the court stated that state law had, before the amendment, set limitations on who can be married through a statute.

“We conclude that Oregon law currently places the regulation of marriage exclusively within the province of the state’s legislative power,” the court said  in its opinion .

With the court coming down against the marriages, the Legislature is set to act, according to the Associated Press. Governor Ted Kulongoski has already said he will push for the legalization of civil unions for same-sex couples.

Vermont was the first and still the only state to allow civil unions to same-sex couples, passing a law in 2000. Massachusetts has allowed gay marriages for a year after its state Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to not allow same-sex partners to be wed.

Benefits April 13, 2005

Survey: 2005 Will Be Strong Year for Hiring

April 13, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - 2005 will be a strong year for headcount growth and overall full-time hiring, according to a Piper Jaffray & Co. report.
Reported by

Overall hiring of full-time employees will be up 5% over 2004 totals, according to the report. In 2005, 44% of human resource executives planned to increase total headcount, compared to only 11% who expect a decrease. Forty-five percent of those polled expect to see no change in headcount.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

The survey makes a special mention of the network management sector of the information technology industry, which will see a large increase in head count in the coming year.

Looking at software and the effects of the PeopleSoft-Oracle deal (See Oracle, PeopleSoft Settle Takeover Battle ), Piper Jaffray suggests that the merger of the two companies will have little effect on the sale of PeopleSoft products. Ninety-three percent of those polled said the deal did not change their likelihood of purchasing PeopleSoft products, and 97% said they expect spending on PeopleSoft applications to either remain the same or increase in the coming year. In fact, 9% of PeopleSoft customers have seen and expect to see an increase in spending on PeopleSoft products, even if they are buying them from Oracle (See Hanging Tough ).

Looking at individual recruiting firms, Piper Jaffray expects Monster to maintain is large online market share relative to CareerBuilder, and also expects that online recruitment spending will dramatically outpace that in newspapers, recruiters and job fairs. The report predicts that overall spending growth in the online employment market will rise 12% on the year.

The survey also predicts that the overall market for pre-employment screening will grow in 2005 by 12%. Choicepoint will remain the dominant force in the marketplace, the report suggests. Robert Half also received a mention for the high quality of its job candidates.

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive, with 324 HR professionals responding.

«