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Every employer is affected by today’s litigious landscape and the constantly changing environment of government regulations, state and federal statutes, jury verdicts and court decisions. These legal issues regularly invade the workplace and can distract managers from focusing on an organization’s priorities and productivity goals.   Many employers incorrectly believe that good sense is the only skill which is needed to manage their human resources. However, in reality, navigating legal landmines in the workplace is not always intuitive or logical.   For instance:

• After problems arose when employees became jealous of each other based on salary differences and after some key employees were lured to competitors who offered them a little more money than their current salaries, the employer put a provision in its employee handbook forbidding employees from discussing their salaries with each other. It also required key employees to sign agreements promising to keep the terms of their compensation confidential. However, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that it violates the NLRA for union and non-union employers to forbid employees to discuss their compensation with each other because they might want to retain a union or engage in other protected “concerted activities” about their wages. The NLRB permits employers to forbid the disclosure of wage information to competitors, clients and headhunters if the agreements are narrowly drafted.

• A female employee mentioned to the day shift supervisor that the night shift supervisor gave her the creeps by asking her out on dates and brushing up against her. She asked what she should do about him because she did not want him to be fired and did not want to look like a troublemaker. The day shift supervisor had never been trained about what to do when an employee complained about harassment, advised her to avoid the other supervisor and never reported the situation to HR or anyone else in management. When the female employee was later laid off, she filed suit for sexual harassment. Federal courts require employers to investigate all complaints of harassment and to take action to stop the harassment – even if the employee asks the employer to NOT do anything. An employer could also lose its affirmative defense to a claim for punitive damages if it never trained its managers about how to handle complaints of harassment or to enforce its non-harassment policies.

Employment litigation can be expensive and distracting to management and business operations.   It also can negatively affect employee morale and public relations. The EEOC has reported a significant increase in the number of Charges of Discrimination filed at the federal level over the last few years. This makes it critical that every employer have proactive strategies and up-to-date procedures in place to both motivate productive employees and to avoid costly, lengthy and invasive litigation and government investigations. Therefore, it is important to work with an attorney who partners with you, understands organizational dynamics and has experience in addressing claims of age, disability, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, and religious discrimination, as well as claims for equal pay, unpaid overtime, harassment, retaliation, whistleblowing, and violations of the FMLA. Employers need an attorney who provides assistance before a workplace annoyance becomes a problem, when a workplace dispute can be easily resolved internally, when a government agency becomes involved, and after litigation has commenced.