By Steve Thorpe
Legal News
The landscape has changed dramatically for employers in the last 25 years and keeping up isn’t always easy. There are entire areas of labor law that didn’t exist in 1987 that have the potential to keep an employer up at night. An upcoming all-day informational conference is intended to help unravel some of the mysteries.
“The ADA didn’t exist, the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) didn’t exist,” says Daniel Tukel, chair of Butzel Long’s Labor and Employment Law Department. “Our objective is to provide attendees with practical information that will help them day-to-day at work.”
Butzel Long will present the firm’s 25th Annual Labor, Employment, and Immigration Law Forum on Thursday, Nov. 8, at The Dearborn Inn at 20301 Oakwood Boulevard in Dearborn. The program begins with registration at 7:15 a.m. and then runs from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Some of the workshop topics include:
• How the NLRB Affects Your Non-Union Workforce.
• An Overview of Immigration Law.
• 10 Things Every Employer Should Know.
• Effective Discipline and Discharge: How to Do It Right.
• The ADA Going Forward.
• Health Care Reform: Is Your Health Plan Compliant and Are You Prepared for 2013 and Beyond?
• Religious Accommodations.
• The Technological Workplace.
• United States Custom and Border Protection - A Day in the Life.
• Non-competes in the Electronic Workplace: Solicitation in the Age of Social Media.
• Violence in the Workplace.
Gail Cober, director of the EEOC’s Detroit Field Office, will also offer an overview presentation on the agency.
Author John U. Bacon will be the featured luncheon speaker and will talk about “Solving People Problems — Before, During and After They Exist.” Bacon is the author of books on sports including “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.”
The conference will also attempt to make sense of the increasing overlap of practice areas. For example, with the rise of the global economy, immigration law and employment law have become more intertwined. Even the language used has changed.
“In 1989 in our program for the event we had an immigration presentation called ‘Work Visas for Alien Employees,’” says Butzel attorney and program presenter James Rosenfeld. “I don’t think that terminology would be used today with the changing landscape of what’s offensive or discriminatory.”
Another volatile issue that will be addressed is the current state of health care reform.
“Health care, even 25 years ago, was a significant cost for employers, but it has grown disproportionately since then and requires more and more scrutiny” says Tukel.
The discussion will be particularly timely coming two days after the presidential election.
“Mitt Romney has pledged that one of the things he’s going to do on day one is to start the process to repeal Obamacare if he can,” Tukel says. “So it may be that the landscape changes dramatically depending on the outcome of the vote. But there are already requirements in place for employers under the health care reform act and additional requirements coming in 2013. Health care remains the biggest economic challenge for employers today.”
Changing communications technology can also create problems for employers.
“We’re going to have a couple workshops that will focus on social media issues and electronic communication, the other on relations with the National Labor Relations Board,” says Rosenfeld. “The NLRB has even gotten into the act of regulating what can be put on a Facebook page.”
A $200 registration fee includes continental breakfast, lunch, reception, and seminar materials. The program is pending approval for PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute (HRCI).
Those interested in attending may register online at www.butzel.com/labor2012/ or call Aurélie Martins at 313-983-6907.
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