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By:  Lizbeth V. West

In Teed v. Thomas & Betts Power Solutions LLC, the Seventh Circuit held that a company that acquired another business’s assets at a receiver’s auction was responsible for paying a $500,000 settlement reached in a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit between the predecessor business and its employees. The acquiring company knew about the FLSA lawsuit prior to the asset acquisition and specifically disclaimed liability for the lawsuit as a condition of the asset-transfer agreement. The court essentially held that the disclaimer was irrelevant. The court ruled that an explicit contractual disclaimer of the FLSA liability was not a good enough reason standing alone to avoid the "default rule" that a predecessor’s FLSA liability should normally be imposed upon the successor, unless there are good reasons not to do so. The court concluded among other things that, if an acquiring employer could contractually disclaim liability in this fashion, the "statutory goals" of the FLSA would be frustrated, and "a violator of the Act could escape liability or at least make relief much more difficult to obtain." The court also rejected a variety of other arguments to the effect that finding successor liability would be inequitable or economically unwise.Continue Reading Employment Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions

The newly revised Form I-9 is here! A revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, the form that must be completed by all employers to verify the employment eligibility of every new hire, must be used starting March 11, 2013. The new form includes the expansion of the Form I-9 from one to two pages (not including the “List of Acceptable Documents” and form instructions), additional data fields (such as the new hire’s email address and phone number), enhanced Form I-9 instructions, and a revised layout.
Continue Reading Spring Cleaning Your Hiring Packet?: Start With The Newly Revised I-9

By:  Chelcey E. Lieber

Let’s say an employee was “completely incapacitated” and needs to take leave due to a back injury. The employee is granted leave, but then terminated while on leave. This sets the perfect stage for a successful interference and retaliation claim, right? The Court in Jaszczyszyn v. Advantage Health Physician Network disagreed (full opinion may be found here: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/12a1152n-06.pdf).Continue Reading Facebook Pictures Enough for the Sixth Circuit to Uphold the Employer’s “Honest Belief” Defense (Sara Jaszczyszyn v. Advantage Health Physician Network)

Last year, California revised Labor Code section 2751 such that any employment agreement involving “commission” payments would have to be put into writing with a signed copy of the agreement be given to the employee. Those revisions go into effect on January 1, 2013.
Continue Reading First “Commission” Agreements Must Be in Writing. Now the Definition of “Commissions” is Limited Under Labor Code § 2751

By: Charles L. Post

AB 1844 is now law. Among other things, it:

(1)      prohibits an employer from requiring or requesting an employee or applicant for employment to disclose a user name or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media or to require the employee or applicant to access personal social media in the presence of the employer or to divulge any personal social media;Continue Reading Don’t Ask for Passwords – Restrictions on Employer Use of Employee Social Media Accounts and Information is Now Law