Workplace Issues

Seminar A: Effective Management of Employees: Coordination and Documentation

The three most important things in real estate are "Location, Location, and Location." The three most important things in the employment relations arena are "Documentation, Documentation, and Documentation." Why? Under this country's employment laws, it is extremely easy for a discharged employee to "go after" an employer. All the employee has to do is march down to the EEOC or the Human Rights Commission, show that he or she is a member of some minority, and claim unfair or different treatment. This costs an employee absolutely nothing. Without proper coordination and appropriate documentation -- including performance reviews and disciplinary write-ups -- an employer may be hard-pressed to persuade a governmental agency or a jury that it acted properly. This seminar not only emphasizes the importance of documentation but provides several tips for ways that employers and managers can coordinate and document their actions to prevent problems and, if necessary, enhance their litigation position. This seminar also explores ways employers can sever the employment relationship effectively, including a discussion of discharge checklists, separation agreements, and special considerations for procuring waivers of age discrimination claims. This seminar also provides practical information and tools to assist employers in dealing with other situations that require coordination and documentation but which they sometimes ignore, including:

• Sexual harassment complaints and investigations
• Fitness for duty evaluations
• ADA "reasonable accommodation"
• The substance-abusing employee
• Last chance agreements
• Hiring and employment offers

Seminar B: Preventing and Investigating Sexual and Other Harassment

Although harassment has been unlawful for many years, its spectacular rise as a workplace issue began with the phenomenal impact of the Senate confirmation hearings concerning Clarence Thomas. The White House scandal has only fueled the fire.

Publicity about sexual harassment has had a profound impact on employment relations. Harassment claims have increased dramatically. It is critical for employers and their key personnel to understand what sexual harassment is and the explosive ramifications of sexual harassment claims. This seminar is designed to help employers and their key managers focus on how to prevent sexual harassment through an effective policy and education and, if a claim of harassment is made, how to investigate and deal with it. A segment of the seminar involves participants in a "mock investigation" of a harassment complaint. The seminar also discusses how to protect employees who have been harassed as well as those who have been falsely accused. The presentation explores how to prevent and deal with other forms of harassment, such as racial, age, and disability harassment, and how to limit employer and manager liability for harassment. The seminar also addresses how to deal with old complaints and how to handle situations where an employee reports harassment but insists that an employer does nothing about it.

Seminar C: The Art of Effective Interviewing

Effective interviewing is more of an art than a science. It requires employers to be trained in interviewing techniques to find talented, dedicated, and loyal employees. It also requires that employers understand many of the legal pitfalls to interviewing. This presentation is designed to sensitize employers to some of the proven techniques for effective interviewing, and it includes an "inappropriate" and an "appropriate" mock interview. It is highly practical and reviews our "Ten Commandments of Effective Interviewing." The seminar also highlights a number of legal issues to which employers must be alert in the hiring process, lest they inadvertently make unnecessary and undesired promises to applicants or discriminate against applicants.

Seminar D: Preventing Workplace Violence

According to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control, murder has become a leading cause of on-the-job death. Experts have estimated that more than 110,000 acts of workplace violence occur each year. With more violent episodes occurring in the workplace, employers are becoming increasingly concerned about the legal issues involved in the employment of mentally or emotionally unstable employees and ways to prevent workplace violence. Employers who are trying to deal effectively with unstable or potentially unfit employees face several conflicting tensions. These include balancing the legal protections afforded to individuals under anti-discrimination and privacy laws against an employer's obligation to maintain a safe working environment, as well as its obligation to investigate applicants and supervise employees to prevent injuries to others. This seminar is designed to help employers understand the issues they face and to examine a number of preventive strategies for balancing effectively the various rights and issues at stake. The presentation also outlines some steps which employers may want to consider adopting in order to prevent and deal with burgeoning workplace violence issues.

Seminar E: Employees with Physical and Mental Impairments: The ADA Need Not Disable Employers

In today's litigious society, many employers believe that some of the most difficult workplace situations involve employees with physical or mental impairments. For example, they ask questions like:

• Why do I have to do anything for employees who become disabled? When they're absent, it undermines productivity and our ability to function.
• When should I have employees with physical or mental impairments examined by a doctor?
• How do I go about reasonably accommodating an employee?
• What if it costs a lot to accommodate an employee?
• When, if ever, should employees who seem to be unfit be sent home from work or put on leave?
• How do I protect the safety of both impaired workers and healthy workers?
• How should I handle requests for leaves of absence?
• What should I do if I suspect an employee might be violent?
• What should I do if someone starts harassing a disabled employee?

Although some delicate issues can arise, employers need not panic. Through case studies and scenarios, this seminar discusses practical steps to help employers work effectively with and accommodate individuals with disabilities without running afoul of laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and Workers' Compensation Act.

Seminar F: Life-Threatening Illness Policy

Most employers think it will never happen to them. The odds are, however, that one day, an employee will advise his employer that he has tested positively for the HIV-virus, that he has inoperable cancer and only six months to live, or that he has some other life-threatening illness. How will the employer respond to these kinds of situations? Firing or taking other adverse action against such an employee will invariably violate the law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and state and/or local laws. Is the employer prepared to appropriately deal with the legal ramifications, compassionately address the rights and wishes of the employee, and manage the fears and concerns of other employees? This presentation is designed to help employers think through these issues, adopt an appropriate life-threatening illness policy, and sponsor meaningful educational programs for its managers and employees.

Seminar G: References: To Give Or Not to Give; That Is the Question

Often, managers are asked to give references for former employees. This may seem like a simple and innocuous matter. If, however, a manager is not careful how he or she gives a reference, the manager and his or her employer can be sued or even held liable for defamation. Today, it has become popular for employees to sue their employers for what they regard as a bad reference. When employees file suit, they often don't just claim defamation. They frequently claim other things like invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. This presentation reviews what defamation and invasion of privacy are and are not; explores the different kinds of references which can be given and the pros and cons of each; offers employers practical suggestions about how to respond to references concerning employees and former employees; reviews how references should be coordinated; discusses how to deal with co-worker inquiries about fellow employees; discusses techniques for obtaining references about applicants; and reviews the Supreme Court's decision in Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., where an employee who had been fired by his employer successfully claimed that his former employer gave a negative reference about him to a prospective employer in retaliation for his having filed a race discrimination charge with the EEOC.

Seminar H: The Role of an Employee Handbook: Myth vs. Reality

An employee handbook is one of the most misunderstood management tools. This seminar examines some of the myths about employee handbooks and reviews the nature and functions of an employee handbook, including why an employer should have a handbook from both a practical and legal perspective. The seminar also explores the importance of having a properly crafted handbook and ways to reduce the chances of encountering legal problems if an employer already has a handbook. The presentation discusses some of the employment policies which should be contained in an employee handbook. Finally, the seminar reviews strategies for implementing a handbook, including how to issue a new or revised handbook to employees and ways to train managers to administer it effectively.

Seminar I: The Psychology and Dynamics of Collective Bargaining Negotiations

A labor contract negotiation is a different animal than a typical commercial contract negotiation. There are three parties at the table with diverse interests: the employer, the employees, and the union representing the employees. The relationship is an on-going one; not a one-shot deal. There are also labor laws which regulate the options of the parties if they fail to agree upon a contract. This seminar presents strategies for conducting successful labor contract negotiations, including how to prepare for a negotiation, analysis of the bargaining unit team, selection of the company negotiating team, analysis of the bottom line and strike positions, the importance of maintaining credibility, and strategies for obtaining favorable contract language.

Seminar J: Are You Violating the Overtime Laws?

Many employers think that by merely paying an employee a salary they can avoid the impact of the overtime laws and not be required to pay overtime. All employees are entitled to overtime pay unless they fall within one of the narrowly defined exemptions recognized by the Department of Labor. Employers have been rudely awakened to discover that they owe their employees years of back pay because they have improperly classified their employees as exempt. In addition, some employers have been stunned to learn that merely deducting pay from an exempt employee's salary could render that employee, and all others similarly situated, non-exempt and entitled to back pay. This seminar helps sort through the myriad of technical overtime regulations to which many employers have fallen prey.

Seminar K: Smoking and the Workplace -- Helping Employers Breathe More Easily

Smoking in the workplace may seem like an unimportant and relatively simple issue. But balancing the competing and often militant interests of smokers and non-smokers is fraught with problems. Moreover, there are a host of laws which regulate smoking in the employment context, and angry employees -- both smokers and non-smokers -- have ignited the fray by filing lawsuits concerning smoking. This seminar is designed to help clear the air for employers by highlighting the legal issues, reviewing the flaming tensions between smokers and non-smokers, and by suggesting ways in which employers can strike an appropriate balance between the rights of smokers and non-smokers through the development of an effective and fair smoking policy.

Seminar L: Legal and Practical Implications of Flexible Work Arrangements

Increasingly, companies are offering more and more employees flexible work schedules. Initially, companies used flexible arrangements to attract and retain highly valued employees. The practice has become more widespread as a way not only to help employees cope with the stress of juggling their careers and their personal lives but also to increase productivity. More than ever, employees today are single parents or dual-career couples with family and child-care needs. They need flexible arrangements, such as being able to choose their starting times; to work compressed workweeks; to work a long week and then a short week; to job share; to work part-time; to take leaves of absence; to bring their children to work or company-sponsored day care programs and, perhaps most important, to work from home. New technology -- computers, fax machines, and cellular phones -- have contributed to the flexible workplace and the portable office. Although this flexibility has many advantages for employers and employees, employers must still consider the legal and practical implications of flexible work arrangements. This seminar explores some of these implications, including the impact of the ADA and the FMLA; the interplay of work at home arrangements and workers' compensation laws; overtime issues; required notices to employees; confidentiality issues; and isolation and independence problems.

Seminar M: Employees vs. Independent Contractors

An employer's determination as to whether certain individuals should be classified as employees or independent contractors is a critical business decision. For example, if an individual is properly classified as an independent contractor, the business for which that person performs services is not required to withhold income taxes from the payments it makes to him and is not responsible for unemployment compensation taxes for that individual. Nor is it required to pay him overtime. Misclassification of individuals as independent contractors, however, can result in an employer incurring substantial liability for unpaid taxes, contributions, and other damages, as well as interest and penalties. Classification of individuals may also have consequences for a business under laws which regulate employment discrimination and employee benefits. Individuals who are properly classified as independent contractors are generally not covered under these laws. In addition, the business' liability for the acts of individuals who perform services for it depend largely on how such individuals are classified. This presentation is designed to help employers identify the differences between employees and independent contractors under various employment and tax laws and the various factors which the courts will examine. The presentation also discusses provisions to include in employment and engagement agreements in order to document whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor.