Five Employment Law Issues for Risk Managers Throughout 2016
By: Don Benson, Esq. Risk Managers can expect to be confronted in the remainder of 2016 with five growing trends in employment law that require organizational attention and planning: Protecting Trade Secrets Protecting your competitive edge is
Assisted Living Facility Miss-Classifies Employees As Independent Contractors: Owes $56,000.00 To Nine Employees
Written by: Don Benson, Esq. The U.S. Labor Department announces in a March 16, 2016 press release that a Tampa assisted living facility must pay more than $56K in back wages to nine employees. Two employees were miss-classified as indepe
New EEOC Lawsuits Seek to Expand Title VII to Protect Sexual Orientation
By Don Benson The EEOC has filed two new cases alleging sex discrimination based on sexual orientation: • In EEOC v. Scott Medical Health Center, P.C., (W.D. Pa., No. 2:16-cv-00225-CB, filed March 1, 2016). The EEOC sued Scott Medical Healt
New EEOC Procedure Suggests Caution In Drafting Position Statements
By Don Benson and Sean Cox The EEOC implements new nation-wide procedures providing that all Charging Parties will be provided a copy of the respondent employer’s statement during the course of the investigation, not just after the inve
Eleventh Circuit Clarifies Standard for Mixed-Motive Discrimination Cases.
Written by: Don Benson and Phil Friduss On February 22, 2016, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals clarified the standard to be used in considering motions for summary judgment in allegations of mixed motive discrimination based on circumsta
New OSHA Rule On Respirable Crystalline Silica will Affect Construction Employers.
Written By: Don Benson and Crighton Allen OSHA is proposing a new construction standard to protect workers from exposure to respirable crystalline silica. The proposed Regulation has been forwarded by OSHA to the Office of Management and Budg
Failure to Pay for Water, Bathroom and Rest Breaks: $1.75 Million
Written by: Don Benson, Esq. A December 16, 2015, federal court decision found that the pay of telemarketing employees was improperly docked for taking water, bathroom and rest breaks- virtually all time not spent making sales calls was tre
Employee Theft Gives A Lesson In Data Security
Written by: Richard Sheinis, Esq. The Georgia Court of Appeals just issued an opinion in a case that provides a good lesson on the importance of protecting data against employee theft. In Lyman v. Cellchem Int’l, LLC,1 two former employees o
Government Contractors: New Obligations for 2016
Recent Executive Orders and proposed Regulations are creating significant new obligations for many federal government employers in 2016. MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE: Executive Order 13658. Beginning Jan. 1, 2016, the minimum wage for work performed
FMCSA Reduces Random Drug Testing Percentage For 2016
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration [“FMCSA”] issued on December 21, 2015, a drug testing program change, effective January 1, 2016, reducing the requirement for random testing from 50 percent to 25 percent of the average num