Religion, layoffs, undocumented workers and Eliot Spitzer were among the topics discussed at a recent seminar for human resources managers.
White Plains-based Jackson Lewis held its 21st annual labor and employment conference at the Newburgh Ramada Inn. More than 150 people showed up for the four-hour seminar, hosted by the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and the Mid-Hudson Valley Society of Human Resource Managers.
Attorney Robert Heifernan of Orange County has been hosting the yearly confab with fellow attorney Lewis Silverman to keep the small-business community abreast of industry trends.
Dealing with employees without proper documentation, changes in tracking employees”™ race for purposes of determining whether minorities are getting a fair shake at upper-management jobs, Family Medical Leave Act changes and new reporting requirements for employers with 100 or more workers were among the topics covered.
Heifernan said the resignation of Eliot Spitzer created an unusual situation for the state: “Typically, we have a governor for 12 years. We had this governor for one year, and when he resigned, several people resigned with him, including the new human rights commissioner, Tumiko Gibson. She instituted several aggressive mandates to handle wage and hour discrimination suits ”¦ as a result, we have seen these claims triple from 7 to 22 percent.” He added that “although Gibson is gone, the policies remain in force.”
While Heifernan”™s firm believes settling is usually the employer”™s best option, others are cashing in on the rise in claims. In one case, Heifernan said, the claimant received $1,000, while the attorney received $27,000 in fees. “Clearly, it is a way for some to earn money. An employer has to ask themselves, ”˜Is it worth it?”™ In most cases, settling is the best way to handle the situation, because of the money involved ”¦ and the time taken away from the workplace,” Heifernan said. “You also have more control over confidentiality agreements, terms you can negotiate with the disgruntled employee and lessen media exposure.”
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The attorneys noted other changes to the workplace: nursing mothers must be given paid time off to express breast milk and reasonable accommodation to do so for up to three years of a child”™s birth; and as of Dec. 13, 2007, employers must allow employees to take off three hours to donate blood.
For those who deal with commissioned salespeople, written agreements should be in place concerning compensation, said Silverman. “And both the employer and employee should sign off on this before they are hired so there are no problems later on.”
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Other changes
Companies with more than 100 employees must file a yearly report by September of each year, which requires a breakdown of the work force by job category, race, ethnicity and gender. These changes mark the first major revisions to the EEO-1 form in nearly 40 years. To order forms, call the USCIS toll free at 800-870-3676 or download the PDF version at www.uscis.gov
New hires are also going to be held more accountable in establishing their eligibility to work in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of the participants at the seminar say they have already put in place mechanisms to track Social Security numbers to ensure prospective employees are legally permitted to work in the U.S.
In addition to changes in reporting requirements and the surge in grievances about wage and hour discrimination suits, lawyers from Jackson Lewis also went over the changing face of the workplace, including reasonable accommodation of religious beliefs and how to tactfully manage work force reduction during a recession. While layoffs and company closings have not peaked at the levels seen after 9/11, employers are downsizing or leaving openings unfilled, with employees multi-tasking. Lawyers urged HR managers to use common sense, develop a strategy and to remember “a good employee is worth holding on to, even if times are lean,” said Heifernan.
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Nancy Couse, human resources director for Children”™s Home in Poughkeepsie, said the seminar was “invaluable.”
“We use Jackson Lewis as our counsel, and the complexities of dealing with employer-employee relations is growing. I”™m very happy we have them to rely on because they believe in the value of settling workplace problems with the least amount of financial or emotional damage to the employer and the employee.”
For related materials, visit www.jacksonlewis.com and www.mhvshrm.org.
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