Public Employees'

2007 Global Conference: Activist Investing
$29.95
Can hedge fund activism lead to long-term, sustainable growth? When does a fund become activist -- and who are they friendly or hostile to? What's the interplay between private equity and activist funds? How long will a fund involve itself with management, the board and other shareholders? What is the empirical evidence of share-price performance before and after an activist disclosure? These questions and more are discussed and debated in this informative and fascinating panel from the 2007 Milken Institute Global Conference.This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Handbook of Employee Benefits and Administration (Public Administration and Public Policy)
$129.95
Fiscal realities and changing social priorities are requiring a dramatic shift in the way that benefits are selected and awarded to employees, especially in the public sector. This means that public administrators and policy researchers must consider new parameters and contingencies, both financial and social, when evaluating choices and making policy decisions. The Handbook of Employee Benefits and Administration provides HR managers, consultants, and students and scholars in public administration with a comprehensive overview of this critical employee component. Respected experts in government and academia delve into an exploration of all major benefits, including retirement and healthcare, with a specific emphasis on growing concerns and trends within the public sector. Satisfying the demand for authoritative research on HR Management, this essential resource provides analysis and insight on the most pressing areas of concerns. Public employee benefits ? examines ethical principles and economic considerations; compares federal employee benefits to those of the private sector Health and retirement benefits ? explores the changing environment of state and local government pensions and retirement planning in the US and UK; compares public and private sector wage and health benefit compensation Financial management? considers growing challenges and the trend towards outsourcing Contemporary benefits ? discusses emerging opportunities, such as higher education and domestic partner benefits Featuring keen analysis and concise summaries in each chapter, with an emphasis on future trends, this exhaustive reference offers public policy administrators and researchers the current information and insight needed to shape future discussions of benefit packages for public employees.

The Rights of Public Employees, Second Edition: The Basic ACLU Guide to the Rights of Public Employees (ACLU Handbook)
$19.95
In this revised and updated edition of The Rights of Public Employees, Robert M. O¡ÇNeil broadens the focus from government employees to all public employees, emphasizing the public-service nature of the occupations and professions of such individuals. Using a question-and-answer format, O¡ÇNeil covers such topics as public employment and individual rights; initial qualifications of public employees; public employment and freedom of speech; politics, patronage, public service, and unions; the private lives of public employees; discrimination based on race, gender, and disability; and the procedural rights of public employees.In the decade and a half between editions, some themes have remained constant: few changes have occurred in the areas of loyalty oaths, political and religious testing, public employees¡Ç political involvement, and freedom of speech involving matters of general importance. This edition, however, does reflect substantial changes in the law of public employment.Dramatic changes have taken place, for example, in the development of drug and AIDS testing in the workplace. Employers are demanding more information than they did in the 1970s?citizenship, age, height, weight, and criminal record are determined before making a hire. These and other important changes that have occurred in the area of physical privacy and race and gender discrimination have prompted Congress and the courts to call for a significant reexamination of current policy. Similarly, mandatory retirement and the issue of procedural rights of public employees have recently received close scrutiny from lawmakers and judges.O¡ÇNeil emphasizes constitutional as well as statutory rights of people who work for the government. The rights of public employees are steadily expanding and being refined. At the same time, important differences remain (and probably will always remain) between the public and private sectors.In defining the rights of public employees in the United States, O¡ÇNeil explains in detail the changes in policies and procedures that have taken place in recent years and that, in some cases, are currently under examination. With this valuable guide, public employees can gain a better understanding of their rights and thus be more confident in exercising those rights.

The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems
$90.00
People covered by public pensions are often the subject of "pension envy": that is, their benefits might seem more generous and their contributions lower than those offered by the private sector. Yet this book points out that such judgments are often inaccurate, since civil servants hold jobs with few counterparts in private industry, such as firefighters, police, judges, and teachers. Often these are riskier, dirtier, and demand more loyalty and discretion than would be required of a more mobile labor force in the private sector. The debate challenges traditional ideas about how the public employee labor contract is structured and raises questions about how such employees are attracted to the public sector, retained and motivated on the job, and retired, via an entire compensation package of wages and benefits. Authors explore aspects of these schemes, addressing the cost and valuation debate, along with the political economy of how public pension asset pools are perceived and managed, an increasingly important topic in times of global financial turmoil. The discussion also explores ways that public pensions can be strengthened in the US, Japan, Canada, and Germany.
The volume captures a vigorous debate currently underway by academics, financial experts, regulators, and plan sponsors, all seeking to define a new future for public retirement systems. It will be of substantial interest to a wide range of readers, since public sector employees and their representatives will naturally find the comparisons and arguments over valuation of keen interest. Public pension administrators and policymakers seeking an explanation of what makes these plans so costly will gain a new understanding of how the arguments stack up. Private sector employers and plan sponsors can learn much from efforts to reform these retirement systems in states and countries around the world. Finally, investors and the taxpaying public more generally may be at risk to cover these long-term promises, so it behooves them to pay close attention to the financing and investment practices of these plans, along with their valuation.
This volume represents an invaluable addition to the Pension Research Council / Oxford University Press series as it includes actuarial, economic, and financial perspectives making it useful for academics, retirement plan administrators, and public employees wishing to understand the challenges facing public pensions.