Name:  Andrea Towe
Title:  Employee Relations Consultant
Company:  Southern Company Services, Inc.

1. How many years have you been working in HR?  Approximately 8 years in HR, and 6 years in Employee Relations-General Counsel.

2.  Favorite thing about working in HR?  I enjoy helping others with their career goals and resolving personnel issues.  I also like the variety of work involved in HR.

3.  Best piece of advice you ever received about a career in HR?  One must have patience and superior listening skills!  

REMINDER:  All employers covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (”FMLA”) were mandated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to display the new FMLA poster by March 8, 2013.

Background:  Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton signed the FMLA into law.  The law, requiring all employers with 50 or more employees to provide job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons, ranks as one of the most insidious and complicated federal statutes for employers. Instead of using the FMLA’s 20th anniversary as a catalyst to provide FMLA clarifications, the DOL instead, issued additional federal regulations that implement statutory changes ensuring the FMLA will continue to be one of the biggest compliance headaches for covered employers.


Common sense tells us that it is a good idea for certain companies – hospitals, physicians’ offices, nursing homes, day care centers, and more, to take appropriate measures to safeguard the health of both the workforce and any population it serves.  By this logic, a policy requiring healthcare employees to receive flu shots seems reasonably calculated to protect employees and patrons, as well as to control the spread of communicable disease.  But, is it legal? 

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.