WEDNESDAY APRIL 23, 2008
7:30am - 8:20am — Breakfast, B21 Bookstore Open, Networking
8:30am - 9:50am — Drafting Employment Related Agreements: What Will Stand Up in Court - and What Won't
An employer may ask an employee to sign a variety of contracts or agreements – employment contracts, non-competes, non-disclosure agreements, and more. Often a business' most valuable assets are the proprietary processes and confidential information that it holds—and without a legal agreement it's far too easy for former employees to use that information against you. But the top question for every HR executive and manager is “What will stand up in court - and what won't.” This session will provide recent case law updates and solid guidelines to help you craft enforceable policies and protect your organization. Topics include:
- When is a “trade secret” not really a secret – how to avoid “confidential information” traps
- How geographic scope and time limitations in non-compete agreements impact their enforceability
- Why confidentiality clauses in your employee handbook often can’t protect your organization
- Adapting to the electronic age to narrow access to confidential and proprietary information
- Non-solicitation agreements – how they protect you and how they don’t
- Definition of ‘legitimate business purpose’ in enforcing employment-related agreements
- How ‘readily-available’ information cannot be protected no matter what the employee signs
- What kinds of information qualify as truly secret and are thus defensible
- What you need to know about ownership of employee work product
- What you can and can’t do to protect trade secrets and other proprietary information, including customer lists
- How violating terms of these agreements can serve as grounds for termination
- How these agreements should be handled differently with employees and outside contractors
9:50am - 10:00am — Beverage break
10:00am - 11:20am — E-Privacy: How You Can Legally Monitor E-mail, IM, Blogs and Internet Activity
As an HR professional, you’re faced with the reality that your workers can find all kinds of creative ways to get themselves (and your company) into trouble online – and not just through obvious things like e-smearing, cyber-stalking, or viewing/ posting obscene materials. It’s trickier than that. Even experienced HR executives are challenged by the flurry of new laws that regulate electronic monitoring of employees. This session lays everything out in plain language so you can take the steps you need to protect your company without getting legally tripped up. In this session, you’ll learn:
- Your new responsibilities for e-discovery under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
- Email mismanagement pitfalls and how employee emails can trigger lawsuits
- When do blogs provide sufficient grounds for termination – and when they don’t
- Employee bloggers’ basic misconception of their First Amendment rights (even on their “personal” blogs)
- To what degree information on an employee’s company-owned computer is private – including surprising facts on the use of private email accounts and the privacy of information that’s password protected
- Why it’s essential to have iron-clad email, Instant Messaging and blogging policies – and why employees must understand exactly what they say
- What conditions, if any, must be present in order to trigger electronic monitoring of employees
- When it’s legal to monitor employee phone calls – and when it’s not
- Action steps HR can take to prevent e-trouble now and in the future
11:30am - 12:30pm — Lunch, B21 Bookstore Open
12:40pm - 2:00pm - FMLA & Intermittent Leave: End the Abuse Without Violating Worker Rights
Many workers exploit the complexity of the law, taking advantage of employers who fear they’ll get sued if they try to stop abuse. When companies fall into that trap, their productivity, morale and productivity suffer. Take control of intermittent leave abuse now. The fact is, you CAN take decisive action to stop abuse if you understand the law and know how to use it to your advantage. In this session, a seasoned employment law attorney will show you how to attack this nagging problem with confidence, rein in abuses, and prevent FMLA malingerers from eroding productivity and morale at your company. You’ll learn:
- When is notice considered ‘notice’
- How much medical knowledge managers and supervisors are “supposed to” have
- When employers know – or should have known – that the employee is giving notice
- Challenging the medical certification – seeking clarification and/or completion
- Challenging inconsistencies in medical certification
- When and why to push for a second opinion – and how it forces you to get a third
- How asking for a second opinion can impact your future rights
- Enforcing the 15-day deadline for certification and adopting policies for granting extensions
- How to establish calendaring practices that reduce FMLA abuse and ease administration
- Circumstances that are sure tip-offs to FMLA abuse – and how you can respond
- “Managing the clock” even if you initially failed to notify the employee that their leave counts as FMLA
- Recertification do’s and don’ts
- Return to work – what you can and can’t do and say when employees return from FMLA leave
- How to make sure employees meet their obligations under FMLA
2:00 - 2:10 pm — Beverage Break
2:10 - 3:30 pm - When "At Will" Ain't: Termination and How to Avoid Retaliation Charges
Retaliation is a difficult subject for HR pros and line managers to get their arms around because it covers a lot of ground. Consider these examples: A worker complains about work conditions and later loses a promotion to a more qualified candidate. Another takes leave under FMLA and following his return is terminated for poor performance. Another reports a violation to OSHA and later gets rescheduled to the night shift. Still another files a sexual harassment complaint and later has her hours cut due to “a work slowdown.” In every case, the managers may have been perfectly justified in their course of action. But justified or not, all of these instances resulted in legal action where a company had to defend itself against a costly, distracting retaliation lawsuit. How you deal with these people makes the difference between fast resolution and a time consuming, expensive legal battle. This session covers the “ins and outs” of terminating employees without the risk of getting sued. We’ll discuss:
- How to evaluate your timetable between the action and the alleged retaliation
- How to ensure consistency of documentation to successfully defend a wrongful termination claim
- When it’s “too late” to document employee behavior
- When does putting an employee “under a microscope” create employer liability
- How a manager’s failure to follow up with a problem employee can eliminate an otherwise valid case for termination
- How to establish and strengthen your legal credibility in termination cases
- What you must put in your employee manual to ensure you maintain ‘at-will’ status
- How to avoid charges of age discrimination and ADEA lawsuits
- When can you rightfully terminate someone who can’t perform ‘the essential functions’ of a job - without getting into legal hot water?
- What you might say at termination that can create liability at the very last moment before an employee is safely out the door
3:30 - 4:00 pm — Conference wrap up and closing remarks