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Showing 24 posts in Employee Handbook.

Employers: Don’t Let Bad Weather Rain on Your Parade

By Cynthia L. Effinger on August 24, 2017
Posted In Employee Handbook, Employment Law, Non-exempt employees

The weather outside is terrible, and you want to close down your business for the duration. Can you cancel a work day or send your employees home early without pay for the duration of the closure? The answer is a bit complicated, and it depends on each employee’s classification as non-exempt or exempt where the overtime rules are concerned. More >

Tags: Bad weather closure days, Compensation, employment law, Exempt Employees, Non-exempt, overtime exemption, Overtime Pay, Policies and Procedures

Political Speech in the Workplace: Can I Just Make It Go Away?

March 23, 2016
Posted In Employee Handbook, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Every four years like clockwork, it happens: presidential politics becomes the focus of our national attention, seemingly dominating all aspects of our lives. The national conversation becomes one of campaign rhetoric, and anecdotal evidence suggests that it has only gotten more divisive. The conventional wisdom says that the two things one is never supposed to discuss at work are religion and politics, yet the political conversation can’t help but spill into the workplace, with the attendant potential for division and conflict. As an employer trying to foster productivity and keep the peace in the workplace, is there anything you can do? As it turns out, there’s quite a lot. More >

Tags: Employee political speech, Employee speech, First Amendment, National Labor Relations Act, NLRA, Section 7

Recap of the Webinar, "The New Overtime Rules Are Coming - Are You Ready?"

July 31, 2015
Posted In Employee Benefits, Employee Handbook, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Overtime Pay

On  Thursday, July 30th, McBrayer hosted a webinar entitled, "The New Overtime Rules Are Coming - Are You Ready?" The webinar was hosted by attorney Cynthia L. Effinger of McBrayer's Louisville office. This well-attended drew participants eager to understand how the recently-released Department of Labor Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will affect employers throughout the state and nation. This webinar focused on the following core concepts: More >

Is it Time to Review Your Employee Handbooks?

By Cynthia L. Effinger on April 8, 2015
Posted In Employee Handbook, National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

On March 18th, National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr., issued a report[1] (“the Report”) concerning employer rules and employee handbooks in light of recent employer rule cases. Most of the violations found in these cases occurred under the first prong of the two-prong the test in Lutheran Heritage Village-Livonia,[2] which looks to whether an employer rule explicitly restricts protected activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). The Report used these cases as a guide to provide clear examples of both illegal rules and their legal counterparts, giving employers a valuable tool in evaluating employee handbooks and workplace rules.Employee Handbook Manual Rules Regulations Code of Worker Conduc More >

HIPAA Considerations In The Event Of Employee Death or Incapacitation

December 5, 2014
Posted In Department of Health and Human Services, Employee Benefits, Employee Contracts, Employee Forms, Employee Handbook, Employee Personnel Files, Employer Group Health Plans, Employer Mandate, HIPAA, Human Resource Department

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, otherwise known as HIPAA, acts in part to provide federal protection for identifiable health information retained by covered entities, which includes most businesses that offer company health plans. While many employers have policies and procedures in place to ensure HIPAA compliance in routine, every day matters relating to the management of employee health data, few employers have developed policies or even considered how to manage protected health information in the unfortunate event of employee death or incapacitation. More >

blogs-Employment-Law-Blog,updated-enhanced-eeoc-enforcement-guidance-what-does-it-mean-for-employers-and-pregnant-employees

November 25, 2014
Posted In EEOC, Employee Benefits, Employee Handbook, Employment Discrimination Laws, Employment Law, Human Resource Department, Maternity Leave, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), Young v. UPS

In our previous blog post, we discussed and detailed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the stringent Enforcement Guidelines distributed by the EEOC this summer. On December 3rd, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Young v. United Parcel Service, and decide whether the EEOC interpreted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act correctly in deciding that an employer is “obligated to treat a pregnant employee temporarily unable to perform the functions of her job the same as it treats other employees similarly unable to perform their jobs, whether by providing modified tasks, alternative assignments, leave, or fringe benefits.” More >

Updated & Enhanced EEOC Enforcement Guidance – What Does it Mean for Employers and Pregnant Employees?

November 24, 2014
Posted In EEOC, Employee Benefits, Employee Handbook, Employee Hazards, Employment Law, Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("ENDA"), Human Resource Department, Job Requirement, Maternity Leave, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Young v. UPS

In 2013 alone, 5,342 discrimination claims were filed alleging pregnancy discrimination. The result – employers paid out over $17 million in monetary benefits last year. In fact, the EEOC’s statistics do not include monetary benefits obtained through litigation; thus, employers likely paid out a significant amount more than $17 million. To avoid adding to this figure, employers must pay particular attention to pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, be mindful of what is required to comply with federal and state law, and take precautions to ensure that no discriminatory practices exist in the workplace. More >

Kentucky Supreme Court Decision Drastically Impacts All Non-Compete Agreements

By Cynthia L. Effinger on November 20, 2014
Posted In Creech v. Brown, Employee Benefits, Employee Contracts, Employee Handbook, Employee Personnel Files, Employment Law, Hiring and Firing, Human Resource Department, Non-Compete Agreement

Earlier this year, the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed the Kentucky Court of Appeals’ holding in Creech, Inc. v. Brown, and held, in a landmark decision, that continued employment, standing alone, is no longer sufficient consideration to justify or support enforcement of a non-compete agreement. This reverses prior precedent that employer-employee agreements may be executed in exchange for merely retaining one’s job. While the case has an intricate and complex set of facts, this article focuses on the consideration requirement only, as the Kentucky Supreme Court chose not to address any other issues. More >

Who Owns Your Business’s Social Media Accounts?

November 10, 2014
Posted In Employee Handbook, Employment Law, Online Account Protection, Online Defamation, Social Media, Social Media Ownership, Social Media Policies, Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOP), social privacy laws

Businesses are increasingly relying on social media to establish and grow their products and/or services. While the advantages of using social media are vast (i.e., it is inexpensive, comes with a virtually global audience, and has frequent and immediate contact potential), it does come with risks. Among the dangers is failing to address who owns a social media account. This is very much still an emerging issue in the law, but some existing case law and best practices can provide guidance as to how these ownership cases develop and how they can be avoided. More >

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