The contemporary American workplace is susceptible to numerous federal, state, and local laws that impose strict obligations on businesses (e.g., wage and hour legislation, nondiscrimination legislation, etc.). Most companies, especially smaller businesses, tend not to know the scope of such obligations and, consequently, frequently (albeit inadvertently) violate what the law states. These violations can result in costly lawsuits, and also civil and criminal penalties. In my experience of being a defense attorney in addition to being a plaintiff’s lawyer, the most frequent employment law mistakes done by corporations are the subsequent (in no particular order):

1. Misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Generally speaking, only workers who operate their particular separate corporations are “independent contractors.” Few workers meet this test; the truth is, most personnel are considered “employees” for the law, this means they’re eligible to the complete variety of workplace protections.
2. Misclassifying non-exempt staff members as exempt. Generally speaking, all personnel are eligible for minimum wage and overtime pay, unless they’re “exempt” under state and federal law. The exemption rules (e.g., for executive, administrative, and professional employees) only apply in limited circumstances, however; therefore, many workers that are claimed by businesses to get “exempt” actually have entitlement to minimum wage and/or overtime pay.
3. Not complying with state wage payment legal guidelines. i.e. New York imposes several specific rules regarding how businesses be forced to pay their personnel. These rules include providing new workers with written notice of these rate of pay and regular pay date; prohibiting deductions from wages unless to the employee’s benefit and authorized in writing; requiring written contracts for commissioned salespersons; and providing terminated employees with written notice of the last day’s work, their last day’s benefits, and their right to make an application for unemployment benefits.
4. Not owning a personnel handbook. A laborer handbook is a vital tool for effective employer-employee relations. It notifies workers of the company’s values, policies, and procedures; promotes compliance with labor and employment legal guidelines; so it helps create an orderly, efficient, and transparent workplace.
5. Not documenting personnel job performance. A well-managed organization clearly communicates its employees’ duties and responsibilities (e.g., through written position descriptions), trains and supervises workers to be sure they are meeting these requirements, and gives regular, objective, consistent feedback (e.g., through written evaluations and, where necessary, disciplinary actions). A deficiency of accurate, complete, contemporaneous documentation can cause liability in case of a case by a staff member.
6. Not training supervisors regarding EEO legislation. Federal, state, and local equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws and regulations prohibit businesses from taking adverse actions against employees (e.g., demotion, termination) for reasons not associated with an employee’s job performance, including those determined by an employee’s race, color, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, and marital status ( to mention the commonest “protected characteristics”), plus retaliation for an employee’s good faith complaints of discrimination. It is imperative that supervisors learn the way to manage staff members without violating (or appearing to violate) these laws and regulations.
7. Not providing reasonable accommodations for disabled staff members. Most EEO legislation prohibit businesses from taking adverse actions against employees according to certain protected characteristics, but disability discrimination legal guidelines also impose an affirmative obligation on businesses to “reasonably accommodate” disabled personnel in order to assist them to perform the primary functions of the jobs. Such accommodations can sometimes include restructuring job duties, modifying work schedules, or providing assistive devices. Businesses must give a disabled laborer with needed accommodations unless doing this would cause an “undue hardship” for the company (e.g., very costly, too disruptive).
8. Not obtaining releases from terminated personnel. When terminating a worker, businesses need to get a release that waives the employee’s potential legal claims against the enterprise. The simplest way to get a release is in exchange for an offer of severance (where appropriate). Generally, organizations are not essential to pay for severance to employees (unless essential to an employment contract or perhaps a collective bargaining agreement). If they opt to do this (e.g., associated with layoffs), they ought to require employees to sign a release in substitution for the payment.
9. Not protecting confidential business information. Every company depends upon certain vital, often confidential, specifics of its organization operations, including trade secrets, marketing and advertising practices, and customer and client lists. Access to this information must be tied to employees with a “need to know” and may be protected by appropriate non-disclosure, non-compete, and/or non-solicitation agreements (depending on the nature of the information along with the employee’s position).
10. Not consulting a certified employment law attorney. Perhaps the only most crucial point to take away from this discussion is always that businesses should consult an experienced employment lawyer to ensure they are in compliance with all the increasingly numerous and complex laws and regulations that carpet work just like a minefield. Large companies most often have attorneys and hr professionals within the company to help them in this field. Small- and medium-size businesses often tend not to. Their biggest mistake is attempting to navigate this minefield automatically.

So you? Exactly what are your top mistakes made in employment law?

About the writer: Stacia Abner, Esq. writes for labor law training courses, her personal blog, where she discusses her experience as an attorney assisting workers and corporations in coping with the elements of employment law.