In Green v. Dallas County School District, a Texas jury found that a Dallas County School District (the “School District”) violated Texas disability discrimination laws when it fired a bus monitor who lost control of his bladder on a school bus.  The bus monitor, Paul Green, suffered a known disability – congestive heart failure – and had disclosed that he was taking a diuretic drug for his heart condition. The District said it did not fire the bus monitor “because of” his disability (congestive heart failure) but because of the health and safety violations that occurred. On appeal, the Court of Appeal agreed and reversed the jury verdict.  Green asked the Texas Supreme Court to consider whether the jury could have found he was fired because of a different “disability” – his urinary incontinence.

To read the rest of this article, visit HRUSA at http://blog.hrusa.com/blog/texas-bus-monitor-termination-for-incontinence-is-discrimination/

On April 13, 2017, Governor John Hickenlooper approved Colorado House Bill 17-1021 (“HB 17-1021”) which amends Section 8-1-115 of the Colorado Revised Statutes.  In summary, HB 17-1021 provides that the information an employer provides to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (“CDLE”) in connection with complaints and investigations into violations of the State’s wage and hour laws can be treated as a public record and released to the public pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act, unless the CDLE determines that the information is a trade secret.

To read the rest of the article, visit the HRUSA blog at: http://blog.hrusa.com/blog/colorado-payroll-information-may-become-public-record/.

Summary of Program

The risks involved in misclassifying a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee have always been serious. A number of federal and state agencies regulate the proper classification of workers and have the authority to impose significant monetary and non-monetary sanctions against employers who get the classification wrong.

Program Highlights

This informative webinar will cover the legal landscape of independent contractor status. Topics will include:

  • A summary of the various tests applied by federal and state agencies to determine independent contractor status;
  • A summary of the enforcement authority of various federal and state agencies and the sanctions they may impose;
  • The due diligence employers must engage in before classifying a worker as an independent contractor; and
  • California’s law imposing monetary and non-monetary sanctions against employers (and other individuals) who willfully misclassify workers as independent contractors.

If you or your company is currently using independent contractors, this is a webinar you won’t want to miss. Register today!

Date & Time:

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Webinar
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

There will be no cost for this webinar.

Approved for one (1) hour MCLE. This program will be submitted to the HR Certification Institute for Review.

Please RSVP by Monday, June 12, 2017.

To RSVP please visit our event page at http://www.weintraub.com/events/saying-doesnt-make-independent-contractor-v-employee-status.

Compensatory time off or “comp time” is paid time off that is provided to employees instead of overtime pay.  Comp time has been used by public employers for decades.  There have been several attempts in the past to legalize comp time for private sector employers.  So far, no changes to the law have been passed.

On May 2, 2017, H.R. 1180, the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017, passed the U.S. House of Representatives 229-197.  All Democrats and six Republicans voted against the bill.  H.R. 1180 must also pass the U.S. Senate in order to be presented to the President.  The White House Administration has already indicated that if H.R. 1180 were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.  However, given that at least some Democrats must vote in favor of the bill in the Senate it is unlikely that the President will ever be given this chance.

Read about the amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) at http://blog.hrusa.com/blog/private-sector-comp-time-dont-count/.

By Sherry Bragg

Businesses at every level – from Fortune 500 companies to solo-inventor enterprises – rely on trade secret protections to safeguard their intellectual property trade secrets. American companies and innovators now have additional protections for their valuable intellectual property assets in the newly enacted federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). This legislation represents the most significant trade secret reform legislation in years.

Essentially, the DTSA extends the current Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which criminalizes certain trade secret misappropriations, and allows trade secret owners the opportunity to pursue claims in federal court under federal law, in addition to traditional state court claims. The new federal trade secrets law also presents some very important practical considerations for businesses.

First, the DTSA has a broad reach, and it will likely affect every aspect of a company’s operations. Trade secret issues arise every time a company hires or fires an employee; every time a company enters into a contract containing a non-disclosure or confidentiality clause; and every time an employee discusses the company’s business with a business partner, the public, or friends. All of these activities are now governed by the DTSA.

Second, the DTSA will potentially increase the legal costs associated with protecting a company’s trade secrets. Because of the overlap between the DTSA and state law, companies will need to incur additional costs in order to understand and conform their practices to accommodate both sets of laws. When dealing with trade secret litigation, companies will now have to prosecute or defend against both state and federal claims, adding to the already expensive cost of litigation.

Finally, for better or for worse, the DTSA may create greater opportunities for trade secret owners to win more cases, and to file more lawsuits. By providing plaintiffs with another set of laws and another venue in which to litigate, the DTSA creates more strategic avenues to success. The increased odds of success could spur more litigation, some of which may be for illegitimate or anti-competitive reasons. This, again, could increase litigation costs.

For these reasons, companies would be wise to educate themselves on the DTSA in order to take advantage of, and protect themselves from, the important legal and business consequences of this new federal trade secret law.

For more information about Sherry Bragg and her practice, please visit her attorney BIO: http://www.weintraub.com/attorneys/sherry-s-bragg.