In Texas, cities are attempting to enact legislation that mandates paid time off/sick leave. In February, the City of Austin passed a paid-time-off ordinance. It does not go into effect until October. In the meantime lawsuits have been filed to stop the ordinance and there are efforts in the Texas legislature to prevent such ordinances. Today, I read in the Dallas Morning News that the City of DeSoto has become the first North Texas city to enact paid family leave. The point is the trend towards this type of legislation is on the upswing. Depending on your views, more progressive or liberal towns, cities, and counties are pushing this type of ordinance. Conservative groups or legislatures will then attack the ordinance.
Continue Reading Watch Out for City/County Employment Laws
HR Issues
Round 2 – Overtime Rules
Towards the end of the Obama administration, the Department of Labor announced standards that would expand overtime coverage. Here is a run down from what was proposed from a post way back in 2016:
The new “White Collar Rule” for exempt/non-exempt from the Department of Labor kicks in on December 1, 2016. In short, employers will no longer be able to treat “white collar” employees that make more than $47,476 per year as exempt and will pay overtime once they work over 4o hours a week. The DOL suggests three options to employees:…
Continue Reading Round 2 – Overtime Rules
Loose Lips Sink Ships
At the outset of most employment relationships, the employer will have an employee sign a litany of documents ranging from a IRS form W4 to a non-compete agreement. Buried within those documents is usually some form of a confidentiality agreement. Within the agreement the employee agrees not to share any of the employer’s confidential information while an employee and after they depart. Sometimes the agreement is referred to as a non-disclosure agreement or NDA. Here is an example of a clause from such an agreement:
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Continue Reading Loose Lips Sink Ships
The Beginning of the Year Employment Checklist
As the New Year begins a couple of things to consider:
- Is the company employee manual up to date – any changes necessary? – The beginning of the year is always a good time to review those policies and procedures and see how they worked in 2018. Often the year will show some deficiencies
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The Beauty of An Employment Settlement
I remember when I was a younger lawyer the difficulty I had with clients settling lawsuits that factually and legally had little merit. I remember the partner I worked for telling me that was the cost of doing business. While I knew he was right that comment still bothers me to this day. But the…
The End of Year Employment Checklist
As we creep up on the end of the year employers should be considering/doing a number of things:
- Is the company employee manual up to date – any changes necessary? – The end of the year is always a good time to review those policies and procedures and see how they worked in 2017. Often
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Circumstantial Evidence – Employment Claims Alive and Well in Texas
Yesterday’s Dallas Morning News homepage had not 1 but 2 employment related cases. Texas icon Whataburger has been sued for alleged discriminatory hiring practices and CBS 11 has been sued for violating the ADEA when it chose to hire a younger female traffic reporter over 44 year old Tammy Dombeck. Both cases were filed by…
PIP TIPS (Performance Improvement Plans)
The purpose of the performance improvement plan or “PIP” is to give an employee the opportunity to make certain changes in their work performance so as to merit ongoing employment. Put another way satisfy the PIP and you keep your job. Of course, there are all sorts of statements in the PIP (or there should…
Proof that Employment Laws are Still Necessary in Texas
Caught this story here in Dallas where a now defunct medical lab had “gropening day” every other Friday. Here is a link to the story. Basically employees were free to grope one another every other Friday – no joke. It’s hard to believe something like this occurs in 2017. Unfortunately it does. A former…
2017 Arbitration Thoughts
Over the years we’ve been building a list to consider when putting together an arbitration provision.
- A requirement that the case be disposed of within a certain time period. (i.e. 6 months from filing);
- A limitation on the number of witnesses that can be called, the amount of time each side has to put on
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