Employment Laws

Employment law covers all rights and obligations within the employer-employee relationship — whether current employees, job applicants, or former employees. Because of the complexity of employment relationships and the wide variety of situations that can arise, employment law involves legal issues as diverse as discrimination, wrongful termination, wages and taxation, and workplace safety. Many of these issues are governed by applicable federal and state law. This is FindLaw’s collection of Employment Laws articles, part of the Human Resources section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.

Human Resources

Employment Laws Articles

Employee Benefits and the Right to Fire

Employers should be aware of a recent decision by the U. S. Supreme Court. In Inter-Modal Rail Employees Association v. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co., the Court has decided that an employer may violate federal law if (a) the employer ...
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Employee Benefits: COBRA, the Sequel

Employers and their legal advisors have been coping with COBRA's health plan continuation rules since 1985. This year, 12 years after it issued proposed COBRA regulations, the IRS issued final regulations and new proposed regulations that concern ...
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Employee Benefits Highlights of Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (the "1997 Tax Act") amended the tax laws in a number of ways affecting benefit plans. In this Cooley Alert we highlight the changes most likely to affect our clients. At this time we are also advising you about the ...
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Employee Benefits Regulatory Update

The Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services have issued regulatory guidance recently in a number of areas. Brief summaries of these developments and potential opportunities and concerns for ...
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Employee Can Sue for Workplace Harassment Despite Signing a Workers’ Comp Release

When employers settle workers' comp claims they frequently attempt to have the employees sign a comprehensive release form that releases "all claims and causes of action." But can such a release for a single workers' comp injury claim also release ...
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Employee Drug Testing

The Supreme Court has ruled that an employer's decision to terminate a worker who tests positive for drugs is not in violation of the public policy of the state. In Stein v. Davidson Hotel Co., 945 S.W.2d 714 (Tenn. 1997), the Supreme Court ruled ...
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Employee Evaluations

Poorly implemented employee performance evaluation systems can be a source of increased risk for employers. The most common mistakes made by employers in evaluating employees include basing the employee evaluation on subjective criteria and using ...
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Employee Not Required to Return Release Payment

The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that employers must strictly comply with the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act ("OWBPA") to avoid lawsuits under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"). In Oubre v. Entergy Operations, the ...
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Employee Privacy in Minnesota: Avoiding Liability Exposure in Medical Workplaces

Medical employers, like other employers, need to be aware that too much monitoring of employees can cause unnecessary stress in the workplace. Moreover, the Minnesota Supreme Court's recent adoption of invasion of privacy as a new cause of action is ...
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Employee Satisfaction: The Key to a Successful Company

We know these truths to be self-evident: that the success of any company is directly linked to the satisfaction of the employees who embody that company; that retaining talented people is critical to the success of any organization; and that no ...
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