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Employer Forms Disclosing & Authorizing Background Checks Must Exclude Liability Waivers

Good Reasons Support the Use of Background Checks in the Hiring Process. Many employers run background checks on job applicants before they make an employment offer.  Doing so enables such employers to confirm the truthfulness and accuracy of background information provided by job applicants, such as…
Business Law Business Law Resources Labor and Employment Law

Rescuing Your Defined Contribution Retirement Plan

A plan sponsor of a preapproved, prototype or volume submitter defined contribution plan, including a profit-sharing, 401(k) or money purchase plan, was required to amend and restate the plan’s governing documents by April 30, 2016. See the article “Deadline Looming for Changes to Your Company’s…
Business Law Labor and Employment Law

Legislature Revives Right to Work Law and MHRA Amendments

During its legislative sessions in both 2015 and 2016, the Missouri General Assembly passed a right to work law.  In each instance, then Governor Jay Nixon vetoed those laws, and the legislature’s backers of those laws lost veto override votes. Similarly, since a Missouri Supreme Court’s…
Labor and Employment Law

Texas Trial Court Suspends the Revised White Collar Overtime Exemption Rules

On November 22, 2016, a federal district judge for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nation-wide injunction (see here)  suspending the implementation of new regulations increasing the minimum salary level required for the White Collar exemptions from overtime pay (see here). Although technically the…
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OSHA Raises Penalties, Adopts Electronic Recordkeeping, and Expands Anti-Retaliation Rules

OSHA Raises Maximum Penalties by 178% The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has taken several actions  in recent months that will significantly affect employers for years to come.  First, it revised its Field Operations Manual by raising penalties to adjust for inflation for violations of the…
Business Law Resources Labor and Employment Law

EEOC Study of Workplace Harassment Urges Employers to Do More Prevention

Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued the results of a study of workplace harassment.  The agency convened a task force to conduct this study in January 2015.  The task force issued a report in June 2016. Task Force Report.  It concluded that since…
Business Law Labor and Employment Law

Employee Relations by Social Media Puts Employers in Peril

Employee Relations and Social Media Create a Toxic Mix Businesses use social media to build their brands.  Social media discussions, however, of employee relations issues frequently harm an employer’s brand. For example, recently a soon-to-be former Yelp employee blogged about her impoverished lifestyle because of the Bay…
Business Law Labor and Employment Law

Missouri Supreme Court Rewrites and Enforces Non-Compete Agreement

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…