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Business Law Blog

Archive of: Business Management

STATE BUDGET BILL SUBSTANTIALLY CHANGES WISCONSIN’S UNEMPLOYMENT LAWS

Posted by Attorney David McClurg in Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

The 2013-2015 biennial budget bill, recently enacted as 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, included many significant changes to Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance (“UI”) law. Although some of these changes took effect immediately after the effective date of the Act 20 (such as increasing work search requirements from 2 to 4 contacts per week) most will first apply to unemployment determinations issued or appealed on or after Jan. 5, 2014.  Several of the ...

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Critical Issues for Employers in the Wake of the Supreme Court Decision Upholding the Affordable Care Act, by David A. McClurg

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

Now that the dust has settled on the Supreme Court’s decision largely upholding the constitutionality of the “Affordable Care Act,” or “Obamacare” as most Republican candidates are calling it, some of the important factors that employers should keep in mind for the remainder of 2012 and 2013 include:1.         Small businesses with 25 or less employees that pay average annual wages below $50,000 and pay at least 50% of the total ...

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Social Media Policies Part 2 - NLRB Issues Useful Example of Employer Policy

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Business Management, Technology / Comments

Expanding on last week’s post, the NLRB’s memo found the following social media policies to be lawful (in addition to rules prohibiting discrimination or retaliation on social media websites that would also not be permissible in the workplace even if the behavior occurs afterhours on personal computers): First, an employer’s social media policy can require that employees are “respectful” on such sites as long as the employer's rules provide examples ...

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Thinking Outside the Box: Can Unusual Pro-Employee Policies Benefit the Workplace? By Roger L. Pettit

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

I recently received a blog article entitled “Counter Intuitive Company Policies That Actually Work”.   Please click on the following link to read the article:  http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/20-counterintuitive-company-policies-that-actually-work/.   In this and future posts, I intend to address a number of the twenty (20) unusual workplace policies from my perspective.  I welcome your comments, pro and con, with respect to the viability of the policies.The first “Counter Intuitive” policy is the “No Vacation” policy.  The ...

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NLRB’S QUICKIE ELECTION RULE FOUND INVALID

Posted by in Employer-Employee Relationship, Business Management, Labor Relations / Comments

In a previous post, we discussed the NLRB pushing ahead on the “Quickie Election” rule, despite protests and opposition of Board member Brian Hayes.  At the November 30, 2012 public meeting and voting for the final rule Hayes did not participate in the vote.  The other two members voted to approve the rule and as such on December 22, 2011, the NLRB ...

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Rules Requiring that Injured Employees Demonstrate 100% Recovery Before Being Allowed to Return to Work Likely Violate the ADA

Posted by Attorney David McClurg in Employer-Employee Relationship, Human Resources, Business Management / Comments

In the past, some employers have required that an injured employee provide a doctor’s slip indicating that they could return to work “without restrictions” or that they were “100% healed” from the injury before the employee would be allowed to return to work. Although employees denied permission to return to work based on such rules sometimes pursued claims against their employers asserting that the employer improperly “regarded” them as disabled, ...

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Now Employers Have to Worry About the Federal Trade Commission

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Business Management, Technology, Labor Relations / Comments

A few years back I prepared a handout for a seminar on effective employment practices.  In the handout I listed what I hoped would be a complete litany of laws that affect employers and employees in the work place.  The list of at least 27 different laws is reproduced below.Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000(e), et. seq.;Civil Rights Act of 1991;AmericansWith Disabilities ...

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NLRB POSTING RULE AGAIN DELAYED

Posted by Attorney David McClurg in Business Management, Labor Relations / Comments

We have yet another turn in the saga of the controversial NLRB Rule requiring employers to post a notice of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act. After two previous delays in the implementation date motivated by requests from one of the federal courts considering challenges to the NLRB’s authority to require employers to post such notices, the Rule was set to become effective on April 30, 2012.A ...

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NLRB POSTING UPDATE - YOU MAY HAVE TO POST BUT THE CONSEQUENCES FOR NOT DOING SO ARE MINIMAL

Posted by Attorney Roger L. Pettit in Business Management, Labor Relations / Comments

In previous blog posts we have discussed the National Labor Relations Board’s new posting rule (the Final Rule) which has been delayed several times.  The delays were, in part, because of lawsuits filed by various employer groups who challenged The Final Rule on several grounds.  The primary challenges included arguments that being required to post the NLRB’s notice violated the employer’s First Amendment Rights; that the Final Rule was ...

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LEGAL CHALLENGES TO NLRB POSTER RESULTS IN FURTHER DELAYS

Posted by in Employer-Employee Relationship, Business Management, Labor Relations / Comments

The NLRB has once again delayed the date that its somewhat controversial poster, required by the NLRB to be posted in all workplaces, must be posted.  As noted in prior blog posts, the poster was originally to be posted on or before November 14, 2011.  Legal challenges to the rule requiring the poster were filed, and as such the NLRB delayed its posting date to January 31, ...

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