Employee Rights

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Is There a Union in Your Future?

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Across the country, approximately 8% of the workforce is unionized. Speculation is that if the Employee Free Choice Act (”EFCA”), the union-backed legislation making its way through the Democratic-controlled Congress, passes, that number could double.
This is causing concern for many employers, who fear that a unionized workforce makes the company less flexible, innovative and responsive [...]

Don’t Show a Texas Employee His File

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Let me be clear: Private employers in Texas do not have to allow employees to see their personnel files. That’s right. I don’t care what other states do, or what they show on TV. The law in Texas is that the file belongs to the employer and the employee cannot demand to see it.
That being [...]

Employer Faces Child Labor Criminal Charges

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Note: This Employer’s Advocate column was originally published in the Amarillo Globe-News on Sunday, October 12, 2008.
This newspaper reported last month that the owner and the managers of the nation’s largest kosher meat-packing plant (Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa) were criminally charged with more than 9000 individual counts apiece for employing children younger than 16 to [...]

Happiness

Friday, August 1st, 2008

How to be a Christian Employee

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Note: An edited version of this article ran in the July 27 edition of the Amarillo Sunday Globe-News. This is the whole column as originally written:

In this column last month, I tried to combine my legal expertise and my faith as I tackled the difficult topic of how to be a Christian employer. Click here [...]

Required Employee Posters

Friday, July 18th, 2008

For this week’s Friday Form, I thought I would provide you with the links for many of the employee rights notices that you as an employer should have posted in your workplace.
Most of the necessary posters are available free from the agencies that require them, so don’t bother paying money to a commercial vendor for [...]

Required Employee Posters

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

            As I told you last month in this column, the federal minimum wage is increasing as of July 24, 2007. As an employer you will be required to pay your employees at least $5.85 per hour. One year from now, on July 24, 2008, the minimum wage will increase to $6.55 per hour and then [...]

Recent Employment Law Developments

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

            I often use this column space to try to update you on one area of employment law in which a new development has occurred. But employment law is changing so rapidly that rather than explaining any of the latest changes in detail, I just want to alert you this month to several important changes.
            [...]

Privacy in the Workplace

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

            “Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds”. – John Perry Barlow
 
            “I never liked working. To me a job is an invasion of privacy.” – Danny McGoorty
           
            I often encounter people who still believe they have a constitutional right of privacy [...]

Family and Medical Leave Act Mistakes

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Although the law was adopted with much political posturing in August 1993, I have rarely mentioned the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) in this column over the last ten years that I’ve been writing it for two reasons:
1.    It only affects employers who have 50 or more employees on the payroll; and
2.    It [...]

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