Earlier this year I posted regarding an expanding collaboration between various state and federal agencies to combat misclassification of employees as independent contractors. This effort is being spearheaded by the US Department of Labor, which reports receiving numerous complaints of misclassification for the purposes of avoiding minimum wage and overtime compensation requirements, unemployment insurance and […]

On June 25, 2015 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a memorandum to its regional and state enforcement offices announcing a new inspection emphasis for inpatient healthcare providers such as hospitals and residential care facilities. The impetus for this initiative is the significantly higher rates of workplace injuries in these employment settings attributable […]

The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Obergefell v Hodges striking down state law prohibitions of same sex marriage and requiring states to recognize such marriages from other states will have some immediate impact in the workplace. That is particularly true for employers in states such as Tennessee where no prior lower federal court […]

My final post in this 3 part series addresses non-competes from the employee’s perspective. I am regularly retained to review noncompetition agreements (“noncompetes”) by employees who were fired or resigned to accept another job. Unfortunately for many of them, they were not familiar with and sometimes even aware of the noncompete terms before leaving their […]

In my last post I discussed the differences between the various types of employment agreements designed to restrict an employee’s post-employment activities and identified the factors Tennessee courts analyze when determining whether to enforce a non-competition agreement (“non-compete”). The threshold test, however, is whether the employer has a legitimate “protectable interest” that will be damaged […]

This post is the first of a multi-part series discussing employee non-competition agreements (“non-competes”). This installment describes the different forms of contractual limitations employers often use in an effort to protect their business interests following a key employee’s departure and the factors Tennessee courts analyze when asked to enforce non-competes. Future posts will discuss non-competition […]

I am often asked by employers if they can deduct from an employee’s paycheck money owed the employer for payroll advances, personal loans or for lost or damaged company property issued to the employee. Another common question is whether an employer may deduct from an employee’s final paycheck amounts previously advanced for vacation or sick […]

I was recently asked by a client to explain federal wage and hour regulations addressing work travel by non-exempt employees (employees who are paid based on an hourly wage rate and entitled to overtime pay). In the course of this exercise, I quickly remembered how certain forms of travel can make the job of a […]

Most employers and their legal counsel pay little attention to the actions of the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB). They assume that the NLRB only concerns itself with employers whose employees are members of a union. In many instances that is correct but in fact, the NLRB has jurisdiction over all private sector employers without […]