This post is for all of you (and me) who have sent text messages to people you knew were driving when you sent the message or you knew would likely read your text while driving.  A New Jersey appellate court has held that a remote texter can be held liable to third parties for injuries…

Yesterday we discussed how staffing agencies and companies that use staffing agencies can be sued as joint employers. Today I read about another lawsuit that alleged a joint employer concept in the staffing industry. Perhaps now is a good time to give a shout out to Tom Erb, owner of the staffing company consulting group…

Area wage standards, union scale, and “prevailing wages” are minimum payments contractors or subcontractors must pay employees when performing certain publicly funded contracts. A wage standard is calculated based upon the average payments for the corresponding class of laborers or mechanics employed on similar projects in the area and are generally found in multi-employer collective…

Antitrust laws regulate business monopolies in the interest of promoting competition. The National Labor Relations Act preempts state antitrust laws. Federal antitrust laws apply to certain union activities. Labor unions are exempted from antitrust laws when involved in a “labor dispute” for the purpose of protecting their own interests and must not be combined with…

Compactors and balers are commonplace in many workplaces. But many of them are old, missing guards, and used by people who are not trained on how to properly use them or are too young to use them. As many of you know, I represent a lot of grocery stores. Whenever I am on-site I always…

Employment attorney Matt Austin presented an engaging seminar at the Lancaster Fairfield Chamber of Commerce meeting today titled “Is your Handbook a Hand Grenade?” Just about every seat was filled and audience members stayed well past the meeting’s normal ending time to continue asking great questions and diligently taking notes about handbooks in general, toxic…