Posts tagged Training.

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! 

Today is the last day to vote for the 2014 ABA Blawg 100. If you have already voted, thank you! If you have not voted and are so inclined, please go here before 5 p.m. Eastern today and briefly tell them why you think Employment & Labor Insider should be on the "A" list of employment law blogs. We very much appreciate your support!

According to statistics collected by the Equal Employment ...

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Now that we are into the nasty, brutish and short days of January (and especially for our friends suffering through Winter Storm Hercules), I will try to warm things up with a couple of weird-but-instructive sexual harassment cases.

The weather outside is frightful, but the fire's so delightful!

Our first case involves a type of harassment ...

Chutzpah is "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan."

(Dang, Leo Rosten, you were good!)

Well, anyway, that brings us to Mayor Bob Filner of San Diego, California. Home of Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone.

Now that I think about that -- uh-oh.

I almost missed the Filner story because I've ...

In tough economic times, harassment training tends to be viewed as a luxury that can be gone without until things get better.

I understand this thinking, but harassment training on a regular basis is never a "luxury." It's a "cost of doing business." That is the reality. Here are five reasons why:

"Don't be 'cheep' about your harassment training. (tehe - get it?)"

*Turnover. If it's been ...

Is obesity a "disability" entitled to protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

As our nation allegedly gets more zaftig this question could take on enormous significance.

(By the way, did you know that Marilyn Monroe really was not a size 14 but smaller than a size 2? It's a fact! I am so disappointed. I loved the idea of a size-14 sex symbol.)

"Obesity" is medically defined ...

Over the next 8 business days, I'll have a series of short posts addressing common questions that employers have about the law. If there is an "FAQ" that you would like for me to address, please let me know in the comments box.

I may also have more in-depth postings as circumstances warrant.

Employer FAQ No. 4: Should I offer harassment training to rank-and-file employees? Isn't that just ...

Between "Weinergate," the indictment of John Edwards, and the relatively old news about Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Arnold Schwarzenegger, it is obvious that issues related to sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment, are not going away. How can you, as an employer, know when a sexual harassment case is a "dog"? Here are five signs that you might want to answer "yes, please, and ...

John Gallagher, a plaintiffs' lawyer, had a good posting last week on TLNT entitled "Can an Employee Be Terminated for Simply Surfing the Internet?"

The point of the article was that, although this seems to be a legitimate ground for termination on its face, it really isn't because everybody surfs the internet at work. Therefore, terminations for this reason make John very happy ...

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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