It's that time of the year again when people reflect on the year behind and make resolutions for the year ahead. You may promise to go to the gym more often, forswear Godiva chocolate, or maybe even call your great-aunt out in North Dakota once a month.
As an employer, you may promise to take steps to ensure your business or organization is in compliance with employment laws and regulations of your state and the federal government. Schnader's Labor & Employment Practices Group can help you along the way. We encourage employers to make the following 12 resolutions to help navigate successfully through the legal and regulatory world of 2012:
1. Review worker Employee and Independent Contractor classifications to confirm that workers are classified properly under the varying standards applied by the IRS, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") and the agencies in your state. This is essential in view of the DOL's compliance initiatives and joint efforts with state and other federal agencies, and the wave of audits initiated by the IRS.
2. Review employee Exempt and Non-Exempt classifications to ensure compliance with the FLSA. The DOL is expected to publish a rule to require employers to provide exempt employees with written justification for their classification.
3. Review FMLA policies to ensure that they comply with new FMLA Regulations.
4. Review California practices to ensure that they comply with more than a dozen new state laws that affect employment practices, including mandatory pay notices, misclassification of independent contractors, use of credit reports in pre-employment screening and obligations to continue group health coverage of employees on pregnancy leave.
5. Review HIPAA compliance and recordkeeping procedures.
6. Review payroll notification procedures to ensure compliance with New York's Wage Theft Prevention law by February 1, 2012 and California's similarly-named statute by January 1, 2012.
7. Review process for collecting and maintaining signed I-9 forms and train responsible employees to be compliant with federal law requirements in view of the dramatic increase in "silent raids" and audits by ICE.
8. Review mandatory arbitration agreements and policies in view of the Supreme Court decision last term in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, which provides a basis for employers to enter into arbitration agreements that contain enforceable class action waivers, if properly drafted.
9. Review workplace posters to make sure your organization is in compliance with existing and new posting requirements.
10. Review and update electronic communications and social media policies in view of recent administrative decisions and guidance from NLRB and privacy law opinions from federal and state courts.
11. Continue preparation for "ObamaCare," which has critical substantive implementation deadlines in 2014.
12. Schedule a compliance audit of your labor and employment law policies and procedures, being careful to maximize the protection of the audit results by the attorneyclient privilege.
Failure to comply with the laws and regulations referred to above could cost your organization monetary and other types of penalties and sanctions on top of back pay liability to employees.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
