Labor And Employment | Blog for Business Law

When Must Employers Give Time Off for Voting?

By Gerry Richardson on October 29, 2012

State Laws Frequently Require Employers to Allow Employees to Miss Some Working Time on Election Day to Vote

With Election Day coming soon, employers may confront employee requests for time off to vote. Some employees may even expect their employer to allow them to miss work with pay while they go to the polls. The laws regarding time off from work to vote vary by state. Most states require employers to allow employees to miss working time to vote, only if their workers have less than a stated number of uninterupted non-working hours while the polls are open. Some states oblige employers to pay their employees that take statutory voting leave, but others do not. Employers that violate these laws face criminal prosecution for a misdemeanor, which may subject them to fines and incarceration of a year or less. (more…)

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Missouri Supreme Court Rewrites and Enforces Non-Compete Agreement

By Gerry Richardson on September 11, 2012

The Supreme Court Avoids the Opportunity to Apply Its Prior Reasoning Critical of Overly Broad Non-Competition Agreements

The Court decides cases involving non-competition and non-solicitation agreements only infrequently. In 2006, the Missouri Supreme Court balanced the right of a former employee to compete against a former employer versus the employer’s right to use non-competition agreements as protection against unfair competition in Healthcare Services of the Ozarks, Inc. v. Copeland, 198 S.W.3d 604 (Mo. 2006) (en banc), Copeland decision. The court recognized two types of unfair competition–the former employee’s either misuse of the employer’s trade secrets or the employee’s misuse of customer contacts developed at the former employer’s expense. (more…)

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Social Media Recruiting Exposes Employers to Liability Risks

By Gerry Richardson on August 6, 2012

Recruiters and Employers Increasingly Look for Job Candidates by Social Media

Recruiting experts have noticed significant growth in the use of social media as a recruiting tool. The vast majority of employers and search firms admit to their use of social media in the recruiting process. They further expect its growth to continue. Check out the social media recruiting stats here and how not all social media prove equally valuable as a recruiting tool here. (more…)

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What Risks Do Unpaid Internships Pose to Employers?

By Gerry Richardson on May 7, 2012

New Graduates Face Poor Job Prospects Again

Recent reports provide little optimism for new college graduates in the job market. They continue a trend since the beginning of the Great Recession. Given the poor prospects for employment, many take unpaid internships in the hopes of gaining both contacts and job related experience that may improve their employment prospects. On the other side of the equation, employers view interns as free labor. The too good to be true rule, however, makes some employers wary about the wisdom of taking advantage of this “free lunch.” (more…)

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