Everyone Loves A List and Everyone Loves A Prediction: We Offer Both!

By Karina B. Sterman

The real estate market may be slowing down, but the employment litigation "market" is not! On the contrary, the slower the economy, the greater the likelihood that employees will turn to an administrative charge or a lawsuit to "earn" some extra income. Indeed, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, 2007 marked the costliest year for employers, with a record 67% percent increase in wages recovered on behalf of employees compared to just six years ago. In California, there was an average of 90 wage and hour class action lawsuits filed per month in the last year, which does not include the innumerable individual wage and hour lawsuits. 

So, in light of the obvious meteoric rise of employment lawsuits in California and nationally, the ECJ employment department has put our collective minds together to come up with a Lawsuit Likelihood Predictor, or The Top Ten Things Employers Say That Signal A Lawsuit Is In the Works:

1. "Of course our employees are allowed breaks, but we can't make them take them..."
2. "I don't need an overtime policy. My employees aren't allowed to work overtime."
3. "I'm firing her because she's an at-will employee." 
4. "I have forms for hiring and f iring employees."
5. "We obtained our handbook from our insurance carrier."
6. "We didn't fire him. We laid him off."(alternate: "We didn't f ire him. We eliminated the position.")
7. "Most of our employees are exempt." 
8. "We don't keep track of his hours. He's a salaried employee."
9. "We decided to pay him as an independent contractor."
10. "We did not start an investigation because the employee told me she was not ready to make a formal complaint of the harassment." 

If you don't know why these comments from an employer should give you concern, it's been too long since you've talked to your employment lawyer. 

2008 Seminars at ECJ

Compliance Deadline Alert

Effective July 1, 2008, all drivers will be prohibited from using a handheld wireless telephone while operating a motor vehicle. If your employees are either required or permitted to conduct work related conversations on their cell phones while driving, make sure you issue a cell-phone use policy before the law goes into effect and monitor and enforce it after the law goes into effect. There is no “grace period” for compliance!

Did you know . . .

That an employee who likes his or her job is less likely to sue an employer even when the employer has made a legal mistake? That employees do not rank pay as the highest measure of job satisfaction? Security, respect from management and solid benefits all rank as high or higher than compensation alone! That employees are more likely to follow company policy through a system that combines positive reinforcement and motivation with punitive measures than a system based only on punitive measures? Well, now you know!

If you have any questions regarding this bulletin, please contact Kelly O. Scott, Editor of this publication and Head of ECJ’s Employment Law Department at (310) 281-6348 or kscott@ecjlaw.com; or Karina B. Sterman at (310) 281- 6395 or ksterman@ecjlaw.com. If one of your colleagues would like to be a part of the Employment Law Reporter mailing list, or if you would like to receive copies electronically, please contact Brandi Franzman at (310) 273-6333 x570 or bfranzman@ecjlaw.com.