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SEPTEMBER
2001
IS
CELL PHONE A COMPANY LIABILITY? A lady driving her
car while (allegedly) making business calls on her cell
phone, swerves off the road and kills a teenager. She was
found guilty and sentenced. The teenager’s father
is suing the company who employed her. Should her firm
be held liable? Did the firm approve of driving while using
the cell phone? Was her employer aware of the cell phone
use by the employee while she was driving? The suit involves
many questions and millions of dollars. Does your company
handbook address this issue? This sounds like it may be
a good time to issue some rules on driving and the use
of cell phones.
AGE
DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINTS JUMP: Age discrimination
complaints have turned upward recently after dropping steadily
through the 1990s, according to EEOC figures. Charges fell
from 19,800 in 1993 to 14,000 in 1999. Last year, age-based
complaints jumped 13.2% to 16,000. In the first half of
the current fiscal year, complaints jumped another 15.4%
to about 9,300 compared to 8,250 in the same period last
year. About half of all age discrimination complaints are
filed by workers who have been fired or temporarily laid
off from their jobs. The median age of the U.S. labor force
has climbed from 34.6 years old in the early 1980s to 39.2
years old in 2000. It will reach 41 years old by 2008,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
PREPAID
PAYROLL CARDS ARE HERE: Visa USA and four major banks
took direct aim at the check-cashing industry by introducing
a prepaid card that can replace paychecks for workers who
don’t have bank accounts. Employers can “deposit” employee
wages onto the cards, and workers can then use them to
withdraw cash at ATMs, pay for purchases at stores that
accept Visa, and even pay certain bills. Visa’s product
is the first to be backed by several of the nations largest
banks, including Bank of America, Bank One, FleetBoston
Financial and U.S. Bancorp.
NONMEMBERS
CANNOT BE FORCED TO PAY FOR UNION ORGANIZING: A long-standing
ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”)
permitted unions to charge workers who were not union members
fees that were used in organizing efforts in other workplaces.
The rationale behind the rule was that nonunion workers
derived a benefit from organizing efforts elsewhere because
nonunion employers in the area would be forced to raise
wages and benefits to compete for employees. Now the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the rule, holding
that the United Food and Commercial Workers Union cannot
require nonunion workers to pay any fees for organizing
efforts outside their own place of employment.
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