Pending Legislation Employers Can't Afford to Ignore

Just when you thought you had the employment law landscape figured out, along comes pending legislation that could change everything. From age discrimination claims to workplace flexibility to unionization and labor organizing, new bills in the House and Senate may change the way you run your business.

Senator Tom Harkin introduced the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, a bill that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., and lower the burden of proof for employees to prove age discrimination.

Senator Jim DeMint introduced the National Right To Work Act to "preserve and protect the free choice of individual employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, or to refrain from such activities."

Representative Sandy Adams introduced the Keep Employees' Emails and Phones Secure Act, a bill that would prohibit the NLRB from requiring employers to provide phone numbers and email addresses of employees to the Board or to a labor organization.

Representative Carolyn Maloney and Senator Robert Casey introduced the Working Families Flexibility Act. This bill would create a statutory right for employees to request flexible work terms and conditions.

In this installment, we talk about this pending legislation employers can't afford to ignore with guest Eric Meyer. Mr. Meyer is a partner in the Philadelphia office of Dilworth Paxson. He focuses his practice on employment discrimination and retaliation, workplace harassment, pay practices, leaves of absence, disabilities and reasonable accommodations, non-competition and trade secrets disputes, employment contracts, reductions in force, severance agreements and union-management relations.