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!
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 ...
As of this week, we have a new challenge to an employer based on medical marijuana – this time, in Rhode Island.
The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit alleging that Darlington Fabrics Corporation discriminated against a candidate for a paid intern position because the candidate, Christine Callaghan, disclosed that she used medical marijuana for her ...
An article by Lauren Weber and Rachel Feintzeig in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal caught a lot of attention -- it was about companies that have made the decision to do without a Human Resources function.
The idea drew some positive response on Twitter:
HR stifles innovation and bogs down businesses with inefficient policies and processes. http://t.co/5cGRIwHaxR— Mike Brice ...
As most of you have heard, the Congressional Budget Office reported this week on the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka "ACA," aka "Obamacare") on employment.
The media messed up in its first accounts of the CBO report, saying that the Affordable Care Act would result in a loss of more than 2 million jobs. The clear implication, if not direct statement, was that ...
It seems like such an insignificant little case, but it's really a can of exploding snakes.
An Illinois woman who was terminated after she was caught working during her lunch period has won her claim for unemployment. (The employer said that she was not terminated for working but for her behavior after she was confronted about the unauthorized work.)
Your gut reaction was probably the ...
After a great holiday feast, isn't it fun just to eat the leftovers? Like a nice, cold roast beast sandwich with a wedge of leftover pie? Yum!
Here are some great labor and employment blog "leftovers" from the holidays that I hope you will enjoy as much as I did, followed by a few new year's resolutions for employers and employees. Please add to my list!
In case you were chillaxin' last week and ...
Don't eat that pretty red apple, Snow White!!! It has poison in it!!!!
You know the old saying, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is"? Well, it appears that this may be the case with the new "sweet deal" the Internal Revenue Service is offering to employers who agree to reclassify their "independent contractors" [sic] as "employees" in exchange for some admittedly generous ...
Here are the rules, as simply as I can state them:
1. If actual work is performed, you've almost always gotta pay. 99.99999 percent* of the time. This is so, whether the work is performed at the office or factory, at a customer's or client's site, at the employee's home, in the employee's car, in a hotel room, at McDonald's, in a parking lot, in a dark alley, ANYWHERE. And, yes, "work" can ...
It's not just London that is suffering from unrest these days -- there is reason to believe that American workplaces are far from heaven, too, even for those who are still fortunate enough to be employed.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that approximately 75 percent of departing employees would not recommend their former employers to others looking for a job, almost a ...
Robin Shea has 30 years' experience in employment litigation, including Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (including the Amendments Act).
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