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Employers Targeted by ICE

Friday, July 10th, 2009

While the whole nation has been focused on our country’s economic woes, Iranian protests and the death of Michael Jackson, ad nauseum, the issue of illegal immigration has been pushed to the cobwebby recesses of most of our minds. However, if you are an employer, you need to refocus on the employment eligibility of your [...]

Recordkeeping Tips for Employers

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

This may not be the most exciting topic in employment law, but it is one of the most important: AS AN EMPLOYER, YOU HAVE TO KEEP GOOD RECORDS. Virtually every employment law requires the employer to do some recordkeeping, and anytime the employer fails to do so, the employer is the one that gets burned.
For [...]

Discrimination Filings Increase Dramatically

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

You might think that by now all employers are careful and correct in their hiring and firing decisions, leading to a decrease in discrimination suits filed by employees and former employees, particularly since the Civil Rights Act has been around for 45 years. You would be wrong.
In 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) saw [...]

Contracts with My Teenager

Monday, May 11th, 2009

It is very hard to leave a legal job at the end of the day and not take it home with you. I watch TV and guffaw over the ridiculous courtroom scenes that never would occur in real life. I read and reread the fine print on every piece of mail (particularly from credit card [...]

Time to Change I-9 Forms (Again!)

Monday, March 30th, 2009

As if employers didn’t have enough to keep up with, it is time to throw out your old blank I-9 employee eligibility forms (for immigration compliance) and adopt the new form as of Friday, April 3, 2009.
Click here to download a copy of the new required form. The form is available on the United States [...]

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 [...]

I-9 Cautionary Tale

Monday, February 9th, 2009

If you like to rant and rave about the lack of government enforcement actions to stem the tide of illegal immigration, remember that you as an employer are primarily responsible for making illegal immigration unattractive by requiring every employee to demonstrate his eligibility to work in the United States. This is done by requiring every [...]

Bush’s Employment Law Legacy

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Since this is the last day of President George W. Bush’s presidency, I thought it appropriate to look back and see what employment laws have been passed while he has been in office. While generally considered lax on enforcement of employment laws (except with regard to employing illegal immigrants), there have been several sweeping changes [...]

Employees Who Lie

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Have you ever discovered that an employee lied about something important at work? For example, what would you do if an employee called in sick on two scheduled workdays and then you found out she had really been in Las Vegas during her sick leave?
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a city’s discharge of [...]

Avoiding Ageism Claims, Part 3

Friday, September 19th, 2008

As I have pointed out in the earlier posts in this series on age discrimination, the demographics of the available workforce are soon going to require you as an employer to recruit and retain older workers. With historically low unemployment rates in the Texas Panhandle, that time may already be upon us.
Many business owners and [...]

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