Every two years, Texas businesses hold their collective breath and wait to see what kind of new regulations the Texas legislature will pass that place additional burdens on doing business in this state.

            Since the regular session of the 2007 Texas legislature just ended, this is a good time for us to review the new laws that will affect you as an employer. Only a few bills that regulate employers made it through the process to become laws, so you can rest easy until 2009.

            Let’s first look at a few of the bills that did not pass, which should give you many reasons to be thankful. Several bills that would have prohibited you from banning concealed handguns on all of your business property, particularly the parking lot, did not pass.

Although the change to the “castle doctrine”, the law that allows a person to use deadly force to protect himself in his home, received lots of press coverage when the legislature extended the law to include deadly force used to protect a citizen in his vehicle and place of employment, it doesn’t change your company’s right to prohibit employees from carrying weapons. This means that you are still free to regulate your own property and protect your employees from possible violence by enforcing a complete on weapons in the workplace.

            Bills that would have made a person’s sexual orientation a class that must be protected from employment discrimination failed. This will reduce the number of possible discrimination claims that employees could file against your company. Continue reading New Laws Affect Employers →

            As an employer you probably have employees drive their own cars on business errands everyday – to the bank to deposit today’s receipts, to the printer to pick up new brochures, to Office Depot to buy supplies.

            But have you considered the liability consequences associated with having your employees drive on company business? Are you familiar with the driving record of each of these employees? Does each one carry current automobile insurance?

Who pays for the ticket that your employee gets while speeding to get your package to Federal Express because it absolutely, positively has to be at your customer’s facility tomorrow and you waited until the last minute to finish the project?

Most importantly, who is responsible when your employee has an at fault accident and someone in another vehicle is seriously injured?

Continue reading Employee’s Poor Driving can Affect Employer →

            If you watched the Bravo TV reality show, “Project Runway”, this season, you saw one of the designers sporting extremely unattractive tattoos all over his body, particularly several lines of writing around his neck.

            It is a good thing that Jeffrey Sebelia is talented enough as a fashion designer to have his own clothing line, because if he had to ever seek employment with me or most of the employers I represent, he would never be hired. His appearance is so off-putting to professionals and business people that his employment chances would be slim in this area of the country.

            I’m often asked if you as an employer can “discriminate” against an employee by telling him his tattoos are unacceptable? What about his pierced tongue? Do you have a legal right as an employer to make certain items of appearance unacceptable in your workplace?

            If you are a private employer in Texas, the answer is “yes”. Continue reading Just Say No to Tattoos & Piercings →

            I frequently teach seminars for employers and supervisors who want to learn how to manage their employees in a way that avoids any trips to the courthouse.

            One of the most frequent questions I get during while I’m conducting training concerns an employer’s responsibility for accidents or incidents that employees cause while off duty. For example, employers want to know if they have any responsibility when a drunk employee sideswipes a van full of kids after leaving work.

            The Texas Supreme Court tackled this issue recently in the case of Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc. v. Ianni. The Court was asked to decide whether an employer owes a duty to protect the public from an employee’s wrongful off-duty conduct because the employer knew its employee was drug-impaired and had threatened violence to others.

Continue reading Off-Duty Conduct of Employees →

           Would you be willing to publish in the newspaper the financial details of your company, the identity and special needs of your customers, the formulas for your products, the marketing studies you have done, the specialized training you have created, and your business plans for all your competitors to see?

            Probably not. But if your competitors hire your former employee who has all that information about your business in his head or on a jump drive, similar damage can be done. Your business can also suffer if an employee starts her own business in competition with you using all that information.

            Fortunately there are ways that you as an employer can protect your confidential business information and trade secrets when knowledgeable employees leave your company. You can require an employee not to interfere with your business by prohibiting his recruitment of your employees when he leaves. You can also restrict a key employee from competing against your business by having him sign a covenant not to compete.

Continue reading Protecting Business Secrets →