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Employment Law

Heed lesson from the cola giants: Tighten cap on your trade secrets

11/01/2006

Now’s a good time to review your policy on protecting confidential information, such as product samples. Restrict access to as few employees as possible, and take swift action if you learn of any security breaches. As the biggest cola competitors discovered, trade-secret thieves will try anything …

OSHA fines Oriental Weavers $125,000 over fatal accident

11/01/2006

If you think safety issues may be lurking in your workplace, don’t wait until an accident or injury brings OSHA calling. Otherwise, the agency will surely do a top-to-bottom inspection and catch even minor problems. That can mean a hefty penalty, as one Georgia carpet manufacturer recently learned …

Georgia Tech helps employers design ADA accommodations

11/01/2006

Employers looking for ways to accommodate disabled applicants or employees have a valuable resource close at hand at Georgia Tech …

Immigration ruling sows uncertainty for employers

11/01/2006

If a recent ruling is any indication, federal judges may not look kindly on any immigration laws enacted by state or local governments. For employers, that means continued uncertainty over how to handle foreign workers …

Texas Supreme Court eases limits on noncompete pacts

11/01/2006

If you’ve shied away from using noncompete clauses with employees in the past due to the unpredictability of their legality in Texas, it’s time to rethink that strategy. Reason: The Texas Supreme Court last month reversed its 12-year-old precedent on compete contracts for at-will employees, and the news is good for Texas employers …

Workers must suffer ‘Adverse action’ to win bias case

11/01/2006

Federal law says you must grant employees "reasonable accommodations" for their religious beliefs and practices. But that doesn’t mean that any employees who are told they must work on their Sabbath have an automatic lawsuit …

Isolated comments on accent not enough to prove bias

11/01/2006

No doubt, your managers and supervisors know not to ridicule someone’s accent or way of speaking. But what if an employee’s communication skills suffer on account of his other accent? Are you prohibited from mentioning that accent and recommending remedial help to better communications?

Ban on ‘Union Yes’ Button Isn’t Free-Speech Violation

11/01/2006

Texas public employers have broad rights to prohibit certain kinds of speech in the workplace, but those rights aren’t unfettered …

Review job contracts carefully after a merger

11/01/2006

In this age of mergers and acquisitions, it’s increasingly common for employees to find themselves employed by a different entity almost overnight. When such changes take place, the new organization will often rewrite employment contracts or noncompete and trade-secret agreements to reflect the new employment reality. If you do update and rewrite such employment contracts, be sure to include a statement that the agreement is the entire understanding between the parties. If you don’t, you may find your organization also bound by the terms of any earlier agreement …

Study: Good-Looking people suffer a ‘Beauty penalty’ at work

11/01/2006

Studies in the past have shown that attractive people generally earn a "beauty premium." That is, they earn more money, enjoy better performance reviews and people view them as being more intelligent and trustworthy. But according to a recent study published by Rice University, those studies may have it wrong …