Almost 2 million workers in the United States report that they have been victims of violence in their workplace each year.  OSHA is focusing on workplace violence and employers need to be aware of their obligations to protect employees from known or foreseeable violent situations in the workplace. General Duty Clause OSHA (a division of the U.S. Department of Labor) issues specific regulations (“Standards”) concerning employer obligations for workplace safety.  Employers can be cited by…

Recently, Quest Diagnostics, a company offering drug-testing services to employers, issued a report highlighting year-over-year double-digit increases in positive urine tests for marijuana between 2015–2017 in almost one-third of all U.S. industry sectors.  The company has catalogued over thirty years of national workplace drug positivity trends, and it reports significant increased positive tests both in the general workforce and the federally-mandated, safety-sensitive workforce.  The increased rates of positive detections have been most “striking” in states…

In the latest move in the proverbial tug of war over possible changes to the overtime laws, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a potential new rule on March 8 that would increase the salary required for the so-called “white collar exemptions” under the Fair Labor Standards Act  from $23,660 to $35,308, with automatic cost of living adjustments thereafter.  In other words, in order for a white-collar employee to be exempt from minimum wage and…

Businesses constantly search for ways to protect their competitive advantages, customer relationships, confidential business information and trade secrets.  Non-competition agreements (which often include confidentiality provisions) are usually part of those protection efforts.  Despite the belief of many employers (and employees) that these non-competition agreements are unenforceable and not worth the paper they’re written on, they are both enforceable and extremely valuable when properly drafted.  Attorneys, however, are often asked to revise or pursue enforcement of…

Companies are becoming more aware of the need for their websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. But what does this mean and what are the legal requirements?  The current state of the law is in flux and the fact is, there is no clear set of criteria to which a company can look with assurance for the prerequisites of a fully and legally accessible website.  That said, there are some steps a company…