9:00AM-10:00AM

Managing Accommodations and Leaves of Absence in California

Melinda Riechert

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Do California’s myriad leave of absence laws leave you struggling to effectively manage your workforce? How much must you do to accommodate a disabled employee? This session will examine leave of absence and disability accommodation obligations under federal and California law, focusing in particular on new or changed requirements for California employers under the proposed new disability regulations. We will consider issues related to replacement, termination, and return to work by disabled employees; applying performance standards to employees with disabilities; and what to do if an employee’s misconduct is caused by a disability. There will be a “Jeopardy”-style quiz and tips for in-house employment counsel to advise management on this area of the law, which has seen an increasing amount of litigation.

10:30AM-12:00PM

Managing a Mobile Workforce: Key Employment Law Considerations

Karen Kubin, Christine Lyon & Tom Wilson/Alison Morbey Gardyne

Morrison & Foerster LLP/Intel Corporation

Mobile devices allow employees to get work done nearly anywhere, from home to the airport to the neighborhood coffee shop offering free WiFi. This flexibility can benefit both employees and employers, but it presents unique risks that employers may not have fully considered. Our panel will discuss employment law challenges that can arise in managing today’s mobile workforce, and will provide practical tips to help you address these legal and business risks. Topics include: (1) Wage and hour issues. What are the wage and hour “gotchas” arising from a mobile workforce? What can an employer do to reduce its chances of being a defendant in a wage and hour class action? (2) Employee privacy and data security. How does the growing use of social media, cloud computing, smartphones and other mobile and wireless devices affect an employer’s existing policies and procedures? What safeguards should be implemented before allowing employees to use their personally-owned mobile devices for work purposes? What laws may restrict an employer’s ability to monitor employees outside of the workplace? (3) Trade secrets and restrictive covenants. What steps can you take to prevent the copying, emailing, or printing of valuable secrets? To what extent can a post by an employee on a social media site jeopardize the trade secret status of your company information? When is “friending” solicitation? What litigation strategies can you use if your trade secrets are disclosed?

1:30PM-2:15PM

Red Flags in Wage and Hour Law: How California Employers Can Reduce the Risks of Lawsuits

Steven Feldstein & Kristen Garcia Dumont

Goodwin Procter LLP

Employment-related class actions are still on the rise, with wage & hour class and collective actions far outpacing all other types of class actions. This panel will discuss the most recent and important court decisions in the wage & hour arena and provide critical insights on how to avoid the most common mistakes employers make that can lead to expensive and frustrating individual employee claims and often multi-million dollar class claims.

2:20PM-3:05PM

Hidden Hazards in Hiring: Avoiding Liability In Making Hiring Decisions

Susan Pangborn

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP

State and federal laws impact the procedures and criteria that employers can use to make hiring decisions. Employers can incur penalties simply from having poorly-worded forms, and poor hiring and candidate-screening practices can unnecessarily expose employers to liability. This session will cover the various laws applicable to applicant screening and will provide practical guidance on hiring do's and don'ts to prevent liability risks in the hiring process. We will use hypotheticals and real-life examples to help you avoid the hidden hazards of applicant screening. Our focus will include the following: (1) The potential risks of using social media to screen applicants and evaluate candidates and practical tips on when and how it should be used; (2) When credit checks can be performed under California law; (3) The EEOC's new guidance on criminal background checks and what it means for employers; and (4) How relying on background check forms and releases provided by third-party services might not be as safe as you think.

3:25PM-4:10PM

The NLRB's New Focus on Non-Union Employers

Marlene Muraco

Littler Mendelson P.C.

Are your employees asked to sign a handbook acknowledgement that states they are employed at-will? Do you have a complaint procedure that prohibits employees from discussing an ongoing investigation with their coworkers? Does your social media policy prohibit the use of the Company's logo or trademark? If so, you should attend this session to learn why the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) may consider your policies unlawful. The NRLB has traditionally concerned itself primarily with issues relating to union organizing and collective bargaining. Recently, however, the agency has greatly expanded its enforcement efforts against non-union employers – issuing a flurry of decisions and advice memoranda that invalidate a wide variety of corporate policies and procedures on the ground that they may impinge employees' Section 7 rights. The Board is also applying increased scrutiny to disciplinary decisions made by non-union employers – vowing on its website that if non-union "employees are fired, suspended, or otherwise penalized for taking part in protected group activity, the National Labor Relations Board will fight to restore what was unlawfully taken away." This session will review these developments, explore their impact on non-union employers and provide approaches such employers can take to minimize their risk of violating the NLRA.

4:15PM-5:00PM

It’s Getting Hot In Here: 2013 Red Flag Issues in Occupational Safety & Health For Tech and Life Science Employers

Chris Baker

Nixon Peabody LLP

Fed/OSHA and state-OSH agencies are paying increasing attention to technology and life science workplaces, with a particular focus on chemical and occupational drug exposures, as well as infrastructure issues (contractor safety, electrical safety, heat stress, confined spaces, etc.). At the same time, we are seeing more aggressive civil and criminal enforcement and changes in state appeals procedures that are not employer friendly. This fast-moving, highly practical session will cover important enforcement trends, regulatory and statutory changes, and cases that impact tech and life science employers. Attendees will learn “best practice” and “next best practice” responses for these trends and issues.