Articles and Blogs

The National Labor Relations Board has, for at least the past two years, been focusing on private employer policies that interfere with employee rights to engage in protected concerted activity for their mutual aid and protection.  Employer policies that prohibit talking about wages, hours and working conditions while at or away from work have... READ MORE

It’s long been a crime or at least a misdemeanor for someone to threaten or intimidate another person.  Recently, some prosecutions for intimidation were dismissed by the courts because of the way Indiana’s intimidation statute was written.  For instance, it wasn’t clear that threats made electronically were prohibited.  Also, it wasn’t clear that intimidation... READ MORE

Adverse Inference from Deleted Evidence Litigation happens.  When it does, and sometimes even before it does, you need to be aware that, unless you take steps to preserve discoverable or relevant evidence such as emails, memos or data banks, a jury might be instructed by the court to assume that the deleted evidence was... READ MORE

Release and Waiver of Claims Can’t Release and Waive Too Much  Employee severance agreements often grant severance benefits conditioned upon the departing employee’s signing an agreement that includes a general waiver and release of all claims.  That’s a common and prudent practice.  However, a recent complaint filed by the EEOC shows that common release... READ MORE

In the Case of a Director at an Acute Care Hospital the Answer Is No Employers covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are required to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of employees as long as it doesn’t create an undue hardship on the employer’s operations. Was it discrimination for an acute care... READ MORE

A New Indiana Criminal Records Law Affects Employers A new Indiana law (House Enrolled Act No. 1482) that protects the rights of individuals whose arrests and convictions have been expunged by court order will take effect on July 1, 2013.  This new law will affect employers in Indiana because it prohibits employers from discriminating... READ MORE

Your Leave Is Up – Sorry but You’re Fired Many employers have medical leave policies.  Most of those policies allow leave for a maximum duration often three to six months or even up to a year.  The FMLA, of course, guarantees job protection for 12 weeks.  But what is an employer to do if... READ MORE

Earlier this year, we told you about a recent case from Kentucky in which a federal court found that it was not reasonable for a plaintiff to expect his employer to accommodate his lifting restrictions by spreading essential lifting requirements among the plaintiff’s co-workers. READ MORE

Notice Posting Rule Is Struck Down Back in August 2011, the NLRB published a rule that would require private employers to post in conspicuous places a government poster intended to notify employees of their rights under the NLRA.  Business groups challenged the rule, and the NLRB delayed the effective date several times.  Then in early 2012,... READ MORE

For the past several years, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has been devoting considerable attention to worker classification issues involving the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  These misclassifications are important to the IRS and the federal government because they often lead to underreporting and underpayment of taxes.  Traditionally, the IRS has sought to... READ MORE