Indiana News & Analysis

  • D.C. Circuit upholds Obama-era joint-employer test, ups the ante vs. NLRB

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 01/01/2019
    by Ryan J. Funk

    One of the longest-running sagas in labor law opened yet another chapter recently when a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision that creates additional uncertainty for the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) joint-employer test.

  • Tips for successful succession planning

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 01/01/2019

    Succession planning is an integral part of the ongoing success of most large corporations with boards of directors, various levels of company management, and vast talent pools from which future leadership can be drawn. Such organizations recognize that as the company evolves with new employees, new technology, a new culture, and new products or services—not to mention all the challenges associated with each of those changes—selecting and transitioning to leadership more adept at handling the company's evolution is vital to ensuring the business stays ahead of industry trends and challenges.

  • Earning employee trust can reduce your legal liabilities

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 01/01/2019

    "Trust" is a slippery concept. What does it mean for your employees to "trust" you or "distrust" you? And why should you care?

  • Minimum wage increases heat up the competition for hourly workers

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 01/01/2019

    It's no news to most anyone with experience in federal wage and hour laws that they tend to lag far behind the times. The federal minimum wage—which has stood at $7.25 going on 10 years now—certainly falls into that category. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI Inflation Calculator, today's equivalent of the 1978 minimum wage (which was $2.65) would be $10.72. According to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, if the rate had risen at an appropriate pace since 1968, it would be close to $20.

  • Agency Action

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 01/01/2019

    EEOC announces increases in outreach, enforcement for 2018. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) noted increases in its 2018 outreach and enforcement actions as it released its annual Performance and Accountability Report in November 2018. Highlights in the report include the launch of a nationwide online inquiry and appointment system as part of the EEOC's Public Portal, which resulted in a 30 percent increase in inquiries and over 40,000 intake interviews. The report also noted that the EEOC's outreach programs reached 398,650 individuals, providing them with information about employment discrimination and their rights and responsibilities in the workplace.

  • Workplace Trends

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 01/01/2019

    Turnover hits all-time high. Research from Salary.com indicates that total workplace turnover in the United States hit an all-time high in 2018, reaching 19.3%. That's nearly a full percentage point from 2017 and more than 3.5% since 2014. The report contains data from nearly 25,000 participating organizations of varying sizes in the United States. By industry, hospitality (31.8%), health care (20.4%), and manufacturing and distribution (20%) had the highest rates of total turnover. Utilities (10.3%), insurance (12.8%), and banking and finance (16.7%) had the lowest. By area of the country, the South Central region (20.4%) and the West (20.3%) had the highest rates of total turnover. The Northeast (17.3%) had the lowest rate of total turnover in the country.

  • Employer's shifting explanations mean retaliation claim now goes to a jury

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 12/01/2018
    by Ryann E. Ricchio

    On October 15, 2018, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all employers in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin) reversed summary judgment (dismissal without trial) for the employer on a retaliation claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and sent it back to the lower court for trial. The 7th Circuit's opinion included interesting discussion about the timing of the company's investigation, which ultimately led to the employee's discharge, as well as its subsequent position statement filing.

  • Seems 'fair': no separation agreement violation in response to hospital credentialing form

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 12/01/2018
    by Adriana Figueroa

    In a recent opinion, the 7th Circuit found that Mayo Clinic Health Systems didn't breach a separation agreement when it gave its former employee "fair" ratings on a credentialing verification form—in part because the hospital that required the clinic to complete the paperwork wasn't a prospective employer and the form wasn't an employment reference.

  • Wellness programs are about more than health insurance costs

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 12/01/2018

    When attorneys talk or write about wellness programs, it's almost always from a highly legal perspective. We could talk all day about the convoluted and overlapping requirements of the various laws that apply to such programs. But this month, we want to take a different approach and look at wellness programs from more of a business perspective.

  • Wrap up 2018 with new or revised handbook

    From: Indiana Employment Law Letter | 12/01/2018

    This year has brought an unusual number of changes in employment law. Various federal agencies got into the groove of aggressively undoing a lot of requirements their predecessors in the Obama administration had put into place. In addition, there has been an increasing number of employment-related requirements from state and local governments.