August 07, 2018
It is no secret that more U.S. workers are electing to put off retirement and remain in the workforce longer. Given the current labor shortage (lowest unemployment rate in 18 years), this is great news for companies as retaining experienced workers decreases turnover cost and provides immeasurable value in other areas of corporate performance.
July 25, 2018
By now, most, if not all, of you are familiar with the Supreme Court’s decision in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018), which upheld the validity of waivers of FLSA collective actions in arbitration agreements.
June 20, 2018
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Department) recently issued a notice proposing to terminate the international entrepreneur parole program (IE Program) in accordance with Executive Order 13767, entitled Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements, because the IE Program represents an overly broad interpretation of the Department’s parole authority, lacks sufficient protections for U.S. workers and investors, and is not the appropriate vehicle for attracting and retaining talented international entrepreneurs.
May 21, 2018
The South Carolina Pregnancy Accommodations Act, found here, was signed into law on Friday, May 18, 2018. The Act amends the South Carolina Human Affairs Law. In passing the legislation, the General Assembly stated,
May 10, 2018
South Carolina is an employment at will state. This means that, absent a written contract guaranteeing employment, employers are free to terminate employees at any time, without notice, for any reason (so long as that reason does not violate another law of course!). Conversely, employees are generally free to quit at any time without recourse.
April 24, 2018
Workplace violence is high on every HR professional’s list of worst nightmares regardless of the source – an employee, former employee, angry customer, or random third party.
April 10, 2018
Following the April 3, 2018 YouTube workplace violence tragedy, many news sources reported that there were 500 workplace homicides in 2016, the most recent workplace homicide statistic from the Bureau of Labor Statistic.
March 30, 2018
The 2018 federal appropriations bill signed into law on March 23rd includes an addition to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) stating that “[a]n employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purposes, including allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employees’ tips, regardless of whether or not the employer takes a tip credit.”
March 07, 2018
According to the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”), the United States experiences a flu season each year. With this year’s flu season considered one of the worst since the 2009-2010 pandemic, many employers wish to implement policies to protect the workplace and wonder whether they can implement policies mandating vaccination for their employees. This desire is particularly present in healthcare because those employees are charged with protecting patient safety and more often exposed to patients with compromised immunity.
February 14, 2018
Glassdoor, the website described as “Yelp for workplaces,” claims that eighty-three percent (83%) of job seekers in the United States read its reviews. For the uninitiated, Glassdoor is a website where anonymous employees and former employees comment on a company’s workplace – sharing information on topics such as salary levels, workplace policies, office politics, and much more.
January 25, 2018
Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd recently hosted our annual Corporate Law for Accountants Seminars across South Carolina. These complimentary seminars covered three main topics: (1) operating agreements, (2) employment law and (3) state and local tax updates.
January 23, 2018
Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd recently hosted our annual Employment Law Seminars across South Carolina. These complimentary seminars educated Human Resource professionals on recent employment law updates and changes.
January 16, 2018
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from a jail cell in Birmingham in 1963, "[t]here are two types of laws: there are just laws and there are unjust laws....How does one determine when a law is just or unjust?...Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust....An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself."
December 01, 2017
The latest headlines confirm the 2016 findings published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that workplace harassment too often goes unreported. The EEOC reports that “approximately 70% of the individuals who experienced harassment never even talked with a supervisor or manager,” meaning that they didn’t report it to their employer.