Employers that find themselves in the cross hairs of the National Labor Relations Board should get expert legal help, especially if charged with unfair labor practices. That’s because once the NLRB concludes you fired employees for engaging in protected activity, it is very hard to argue against those employees’ eventual reinstatement.
Employment Law
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In January, the National Labor Relations Board held that employers may not require employees to sign arbitration agreements that waive their rights to bring class or collective actions. The D.R. Horton decision will probably be appealed. In the meantime, however, the ruling holds important implications for employers.
The Indian Beach-Salter Path Fire Department faces $10,838 in fines after state OSHA inspectors learned that firefighters had removed 120 ceiling tiles that contained asbestos from a mobile home a citizen had donated for use in the department’s training program.
Here’s a tip that doesn’t cost anything to implement and may prevent a lawsuit: When employees return from an illness, medical leave or other absences, make them feel welcome—and don’t publicly focus on any lingering problems.
Q. We recently hired a deaf employee who communicates exclusively by written notes. We are finding that this process is time-consuming and harms productivity. May we require the deaf worker and his supervisor to learn sign language? Can we terminate them if they refuse?
Employees and their lawyers are always looking for new reasons to sue. Lately, there’s been an increase in efforts to cast terminations as public-policy violations.
Printing company SpeQtrum Prepress Production Services faces 14 serious safety and health violations and one other-than-serious violation following an OSHA inspection of its facility in Euless. Proposed penalties add up to $44,800.
Q. We want to hire someone who signed a noncompete agreement with his current employer. He asked us to indemnify him in the event his employer sues him. What are the legal risks associated with agreeing to indemnify him?
If you engage independent contractors, you may include a “choice of law” clause in your contracts, designating which state’s laws will apply should a dispute arise. But that doesn’t mean courts will always agree to the jurisdiction you prefer.
Two recent settlements make what should be an obvious point: You can’t misappropriate employees’ retirement money and expect to get away with it. Cases in West Chester and Bethlehem show that the feds will come looking for you, and make you pay it back.
