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Who Packs Your Parachutes?

By Dan Oswald President, M. Lee Smith Publishers Just My E-pinion If you’re a pilot or paratrooper or skydiver, you pretty much depend on the person who packs your parachute. In today’s e-pinion, M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC president Dan Oswald challenges you to ask, Who packs your parachutes? Charles Plumb was a Navy jet […]

Volkswagen’s Chattanooga workers reject UAW representation

by Bart Sisk, David Jaqua, and Valeria Gomez The votes are in, and the wait is over. In what can only be characterized as a major setback for organized labor, Volkswagen’s Chattanooga employees have voted to reject union representation by the United Auto Workers union (UAW).   Eighty-nine percent of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga employees participated in the […]

D.C. Circuit Court: NLRB Can’t Render Decisions with Only 2 Members

Although two other courts of appeals had previously decided otherwise, on May 1, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a two-person National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could not render decisions in NLRB cases. The case in question was an appeal of the NLRB’s finding that management at Laurel Baye, a nursing […]

Sexual Harassment: High Court Clarifies Law on Constructive Discharge in Harassment Cases; Lawsuit Prevention Strategies

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a constructive discharge—in which the work environment becomes so intolerable that an employee is forced to quit—can amount to an adverse employment action in a hostile environment sexual harassment case. And, depending on the circumstances, you could be held automatically liable in this situation if the harasser is […]

You Are in Control of Your Own Legacy

I enjoy reading biographies. People’s lives fascinate me and most of the time are much more interesting than any piece of fiction. Over the years, I’ve read dozens, if not hundreds, of biographies of politicians, business leaders, and athletes.

Employees, Public Criticism, and the Media

by Jean-François Cloutier Your employee makes critical comments to the press about your company. Is he a legitimate whistleblower or has he violated his duty of loyalty to his employer? In Chopra et al. v. Treasury Board (Department of Health), an adjudicator at the Public Service Labour Relations Board recently considered just that. He considered […]

Rutgers lesson: Don’t double dribble your way through key decisions

by Michael P. Maslanka With the Final Four on Saturday and the NCAA national championship game on Monday night, basketball has been much in the news. And not far behind those stories is the unfolding saga of the Rutgers basketball program. Two articles by  The  New York Times writers Kate Zernike and Steve Eder, “Rutgers Tries […]

Employee Leasing: Battle Over Workers’ Comp Coverage Ensues When Worker Injured on Job; How to Protect Yourself

Many employers lease rather than hire employees to reduce the costs of managing employee payroll and benefits. Leasing firms usually carry workers’ comp insurance on the leased workers, which can save you money and headaches. But as one employer recently found, if you don’t administer your leasing arrangement carefully, you could face expensive legal problems […]

Federal Contractors’ Deadline on E-Verify Moved to June 30

Update: E-verify deadline moved to September 2009 The deadline for federal contractors and subcontractors to begin using the E-Verify system has once again been delayed –- this time to June 30. The rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to agree to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their employees went into effect in January, but […]