Category – Safety: Employment & Labor Insider

Posts in Safety.

Light reading for your Fourth of July weekend

By Robin Shea on 7.1.16
Posted in Constangy News, Discrimination, Drug Testing, FOCUS, Gender Identity Discrimination, Labor Relations, Lawyers!, Retaliation, Safety

Well, maybe not light reading, but good reading about good news that you won't want to miss! Here are our bulletins and other publications from the last week, in case you missed them:

*Heather Owen is already shooting off Fourth of July fireworks at the FOCUS women's leadership blog because our firm was named this week by the National Law Journal as the fourth best law firm in the ...

Who was naughty, and who was nice in employment law this year

By Robin Shea on 12.23.15
Posted in Affordable Care Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Discrimination, Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act, GINA, Harassment, Labor Relations, Lawyers!, Pregnancy, Protected Concerted Activity, Retaliation, Safety, Social media, Telecommuting, Wage-Hour

Who's been naughty and who's been nice in labor and employment law? Here are my picks for 2015. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

NAUGHTY!

The National Labor Relations Board, for being naughty in too many ways to mention. Its rules on employer handbook policies, including confidentiality and social media, are unrealistic and almost impossible for employers to legally follow ...

OSHA targets more manufacturing industries for amputation inspections

By David Smith on 11.18.15
Posted in Safety

NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is the third and final installment of David Smith's series on the latest developments from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (But we hope he'll be back soon!)

In August, OSHA issued a revised version of its 2006 Directive on the Agency’s National Emphasis Program on Amputations that includes an updated list of 80 industries ...

BEFORE YOU FIRE: 20 questions every employer should ask

By Robin Shea on 11.13.15
Posted in Americans with Disabilities Act, Discrimination, Employment at Will, Evidence, Family and Medical Leave Act, Harassment, Labor Relations, Protected Concerted Activity, Retaliation, Safety, Settlements, Unemployment, Workers' Compensation

So you think you're ready to terminate an employee. Are you really?

Here are 20 questions that every employer should ask itself before going ahead with a termination. If you think I've missed anything, please feel free to add your own in the comments.

GETTING STARTED

No. 1. Is the employee covered by a collective bargaining agreement? If so, make sure that whatever you do is consistent ...

CAUTION: Your workplace accident investigation may be used against you!

By David Smith on 11.11.15
Posted in Safety

NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is the second in a series by David Smith of our Occupational Safety and Health Practice Group on some of the latest developments from the agency.

Last week, I posted about OSHA's expected final rule on a public database of workplace injuries and illnesses. While that expected rule would require employers to submit their injury and illness records to ...

OSHA rule requiring employers to post injury, illness info online may be coming soon

By David Smith on 11.4.15
Posted in Safety

NOTE FROM ROBIN: I am delighted that David Smith will be posting here as a guest for the next few weeks. David is a partner in our Atlanta office and member of our firm's Occupational Safety and Health practice group. He'll be catching us up on the latest from OSHA.

A draft final rule on electronic tracking of employers’ injury and illness records has been sent to the White ...

EMPLOYMENT LAW BLOG CARNIVAL: April Fools' Edition

By Robin Shea on 3.18.15
Posted in Americans with Disabilities Act, Discrimination, eLaw, Employment Law Blog Carnival, ERISA, Family and Medical Leave Act, Gender Identity Discrimination, Labor Relations, Lactation, Protected Concerted Activity, Retaliation, Safety, Same-sex marriage, Social media, Wage-Hour

(St. Patrick's Day is sooooo nine hours ago!)

Ever looking to the future, we celebrate the coming April Fools' Day with this month's greatest employment law blog posts. Some of my summaries are accurate, and others are "fools' editions" - you'll have to read the actual posts to know which is which. There are so many excellent posts that I'm listing them in alphabetical order by ...

"State of the Union" on substance abuse and the workplace

By Robin Shea on 3.6.15
Posted in Americans with Disabilities Act, Drug Testing, Family and Medical Leave Act, Safety, Transportation Industry

Where are we these days with respect to mind-altering substances and the workplace? Here's the latest, with the "substances" discussed in alphabetical order. This blog post is guaranteed accurate™ for at least the next five minutes.

ALCOHOL. Alcohol is legal, which means that it is generally recognized as the most abused of substances. Employers can prohibit its use in the ...

15 for '15: Employment and labor resolutions for the new year

By David Phippen of our Metro D.C. Office.

While the year is still young, here are 15 New Year's resolutions that employers may want to make:

1. Make sure your "independent contractors" are really independent contractors. "Independent contractors" are under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, state and local agencies, plaintiffs' lawyers, and union organizers. A misclassification can cost you back taxes, back pay (including overtime), and back benefits, as well as penalties and interest.

2. Review your email policies. The NLRB recently found that employees generally have a right to use employer email systems during non-working time in support of union organizing and concerted activity. The Board's decision means that many employer email use policies, as currently drafted, would probably be found to violate the National Labor Relations Act if an unfair labor practice charge were filed or a union tried to organize employees and argued that the employer's email policy interfered with the organizing efforts. In light of the new "quickie election" rule that the NLRB issued last month, both union and non-union employers would be well advised to review their email policies and revise as needed. (The "quickie election" rule is scheduled to take effect on April 14, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other employer groups, including the Society for Human Resources Management, filed suit on Monday seeking to block the rule.)

It's not too late to register for our webinar on the NLRB's new rules on "quickie elections" and employee email use. The webinar, featuring labor attorneys Tim Davis, Jonathan Martin, and Dan Murphy, is from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern tomorrow (January 8). Be there, or be square!

Employment law advice you should never follow

By Robin Shea on 12.12.14
Posted in Affordable Care Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Discrimination, Family and Medical Leave Act, Pregnancy, Retaliation, Safety, Violence

Employers, if you're getting advice like this from your employment lawyer, do you know what time it is? Time to get a new employment lawyer.

"Never give in on unemployment."

This is terrible advice on so many levels. First, an employee who doesn't have even the relatively minimal income provided by unemployment is going to be that much more likely to sue you -- as a matter of financial ...

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