Tidings from the Chair
The year 2008 has seen more changes in labor and employment law than any year in recent memory, many of which take full effect in January 2009. The prospects for further reform are even greater following the elections in November, with the promise of sweeping changes to the federal laws governing your workplace under the guise of innocuous-sounding but radical legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act, RESPECT Act, Patriot Employers Act, Paycheck Fairness Act, Civil Rights Act of 2009 and so on. Coupled with the uncertain impact of the economy on your workforces, 2009 is shaping up to be an incredibly challenging year for human resource professionals and business executives.
As we close out this challenging year, I wanted to take one final opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read the Informed Employer Briefing. A core philosophy of our Labor and Employment Practice Group is that the most successful employment dispute a business ever has is the one that never gets filed in the first place. To accomplish this goal, we believe that our clients are entitled to expect their employment counsel to bring them up to speed on their changing (and challenging) obligations under the law without charging them hundreds of dollars per person for the privilege of attending out-of-town seminars (which, judging from the e-mails I receive, seems to be the norm).
Because of this philosophy, we invest our time and resources in the Informed Employer Briefing you received each week this year, as well as special bulletins on particularly urgent matters. We also have presented quarterly webinars at no cost to you on such topics as:
- Overview of the New Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Regulations (December 2)
- ADA Amendments Act (October 7)
- Bullying in the Workplace: Latest Word from the Courts (April 18)
- Overview of Proposed FMLA Regulations (February 22)
- Employee Free Choice Act and You (date to be determined)
Through the use of technology, our webinars allow you to participate from your own facility at convenient times rather than traveling out of town. Your response to these webinars has been tremendous. Participants have found that this forum allows their already-overbooked HR professionals to receive education they otherwise might not have time to receive, as well as allowing multiple professionals from each company to participate without incurring a per person seminar charge. We hope you have been able to take advantage of our webinars and have found them useful.
If you have ideas for how to make our webinars even more productive, please drop me an e-mail and let me know. Also, if you have ideas for topics for future quarterly webinars, please let me know that too.
Thank you again for choosing Ice Miller LLP as your source of information on workplace issues. Our best to you in the coming year.
Mike Tooley
Chair
Labor and Employment Practice Group
ICE MILLER LLP