For invitations to our events and updates on key legal issues and business concerns:
Please Click HerePosted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Two recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board again shows the intrusion of the Board into the business of running a company. In these decisions, the NLRB (by a 2-1 vote) held that an employer violated federal labor law by: Establishing a company policy that prohibited employees from disclosing confidential personnel information and documents […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
I read that Vermont was the 8th state to regulate the use of credit reports or credit-related information for doing background checks. It may be time to rethink the use of credit-related information for conducting background checks or making other employment decisions. Eight states have now passed legislation that regulates the use of credit-related information […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
A teacher’s aide in Michigan was disciplined for not giving her Facebook password to her boss. The boss wanted to look at her Facebook page because a picture of her coworker had been posted to the employee’s Facebook page. The refusal to provide the password formed the basis for disciplinary action against the employee. Personally, […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
The Western Federal District Court, in a recent decision, held that several provisions of Wisconsin Act 10 were unconstitutional. The provisions included the section that required public unions to recertify every year by a majority vote of all employees eligible to vote to be in the union. The decision also struck down that provision of […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
I am often asked whether attendance at work can be considered an essential requirement of a particular job. Logic would suggest the answer to that question, but of course, court decisions would suggest differently. A recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals related to an employee who suffered a serious medical condition that […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Wow, the second largest civil penalty obtained by the Federal Trade Commission against a private company for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act caused me to take notice. Recently, the FTC for the first time charged an employment background screening firm with violating the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (the federal law that governs […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
I recently spoke at the State Bar Business and Real Estate Transactions Institute on the topic of conflicts of interest when representing a family held business. This is a very difficult area because of the potential for conflicts between the individual clients and the business entity. The representation is made even more difficult because the […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Something has happened in my law practice that has never happened before. I have given legal advice to a client based upon a YouTube video. Peter Davis, legal counsel for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, was included in a video post on YouTube. In that video post, he indicated that public employers should calculate base […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
In 2007, the Bush-era Board (in a 3-2 vote) established a property-right based standard through which employee use of company-owned [including non-union companies] email systems for union solicitation may be restricted. Through the Register Guard decision, 351 NLRB No. 70 (December 16, 2007), the Board made clear that impermissible discrimination in violation of the National […]
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ruder Ware Alumni
Ruder Ware ‘s Employment, Benefits, and Labor Relations Practice Group launched our blog for several reasons. First, the blog is designed to be a platform to promote the dynamic and apropos delivery of value added information between our attorneys and clients. Second, our attorneys are dedicated to being more than just trusted legal advisors to […]