A few days ago, I watched the PBS special, MAKERS: Women Who Make America, about the women’s movement and women’s struggles for equality at home and at work. The documentary highlighted the combined efforts of women across the country in their fight to eradicate gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and unequal pay in the work place. One thing that was particularly shocking was how members of the federal government in the past fought hard to maintain the status quo and keep women out of the workforce.

Oh, how times have changed.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued new Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) regulations that will take effect on March 8, 2013.  The new regulations expand the FMLA’s protections to provide families of eligible veterans the same job-protected leave available to families of service members, and expand leave opportunities for family members when a service member is deployed.  Additionally, the regulations expand and clarify the application of the FMLA to airline personnel and flight crews.

As discussed in the January 29, 2013 post below, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the Noel Canning decision that President Obama’s purported recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were constitutionally invalid.  That decision has thrown into question each of the Board’s decisions since those appointments were made in January 2012, and employers, employees, and unions alike are anxious to have the matter resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The last post, Part 1, set forth the first five items on a wish list from an attorney’s perspective – specific ways in which a Human Resources department can minimize problems down the road.  The final five items are just as important.  Read on …

Human Resources professionals have a job that requires a great deal of effort – a good HR Manager will stay on top of developments in employment law; establish sound, consistent procedures for managing typical staff issues, such as leave requests, on-site injuries, and separation from employment; and cultivate good relationships between employees and management.  From the other side of the phone line, however, comes a wish list from an attorney’s perspective – what the Human Resources department should consider doing  to help minimize difficulty down the road and ensure as successful an HR year as possible.

Name:  Lisa Montgomery
Title:  Human Resources Manager
Company:  Rayonier

1. How many years have you been working in HR?  It is hard to believe but it will be 30 years in June of this year.  I spent 16 years with Amoco/BP in various locations and 14 years with Rayonier.

2.  Favorite thing about working in HR?  The variety – I have been an HR generalist in the field for 29 years after having escaped the corporate world after one year as a specialist.

3.  Best piece of advice you ever received about a career in HR?  With HR you can work in any industry so it opens up lots of possibilities.  

Our firm’s latest “Advisory” just went out this afternoon explaining the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals‘ ruling from last Friday that President Obama’s “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional, and therefore the Board was without the required quorum to act in a case from last year in which it found a soda-bottling company had committed an unfair labor practice.

This case involves a fascinating legal issue of the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers between the Legislative and Executive branches (at least for those who find such things fascinating).  This decision is also good news for a particular soda-bottling company that challenged the NLRB’s decision.

The horrific Newtown, Connecticut elementary school massacre has brought the gun control debate front and center.  But gun violence is not just in our schools.  In August, a former employee shot and killed a co-worker near the Empire State Building before being shot by police himself, and eight bystanders were injured in the shoot-out.  A 30-person Minneapolis sign company was decimated in September when an employee who was discharged shot and killed six people, including the company’s founder and a UPS delivery driver, and wounded two others before taking his own life.  In November, an Apple Valley Farms employee shot four co-workers at a chicken processing plant in Fresno, California, killing two of them, before turning the gun on himself.  Not long after, a ConAgra Foods employee in Indianapolis fatally shot his co-worker outside a break room, then killed himself.  Two other workplace violence incidents, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas (an employee fatally shot her co-worker) and Manteno, Illinois (an employee shot and wounded his co-worker), took place in July, 2012.

Despite expected legislative gridlock and election-year politics, 2012 turned out to be an exciting year for changes in the labor and employment law landscape.  The headlines just kept coming. Some of the top stories were:

I recently attended a luncheon in which one of the Commissioners for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the “EEOC”) spoke.   According to this Commissioner, the EEOC has identified the following items as among its priorities:

  • Bringing credit checks under the realm of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”),  which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, and  national origin, because of the credit checks’ disparate impact on minorities.    [For more information about the EEOC’s concerns about this practice, click here.]