If you are like most business owners, you don’t think about Employment Law until you’re faced with a complaint or potential lawsuit from a current or former employee. It’s inevitable… As you add employees and grow your company, the likelihood of facing a legal employment issue will increase as well.

When it comes to hiring, terminating and disciplining members of your team, there is so much to know and keep track of… You not only have state or territory regulations, but federal as well.

Our guest this week will tell you that anytime you run into a legal situation regarding an employee, the best course of action is to consult an expert… and that’s just what we did for Episode 11.

Victoria and Mark welcome Jen Cornell, an attorney at Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP in San Fransisco [updated 10/7/19]. Jen represents companies in litigation involving employees, including lawsuits, charges brought to government agencies, and investigations from government auditors.

Jen also specializes in preventive workplace audits and policy implementation, such as preparing employee handbooks, wage and hour audits, and immigration compliance.

Victoria, Mark and Jen uncovered so many different aspects of employment law in this episode, and they included:

• Protecting your company from hourly disputes, lawsuits.
• Timeframes to consider (2-3 years of records), penalties applied, etc.
• Dealing with independent contractors transitioning to employees.
• How laws apply to locations (jobsite, where the company is, where the employee lives, etc.)
• Payment of employees, pay periods, minimum wages, etc.
• How to handle discrimination complaints from current or ex-employees
• Responding to charges from government agencies, document storage, etc.
• Handling terminations and disciplinary issues the proper way
• Importance of Employee handbooks and policies in place.

Don’t wait until you get that notice in the mail… Listen to this episode and start familiarizing yourself with some of the issues that may arise and derail the success you worked so hard for.

We would love to hear from you if you have questions or feedback about this topic, just use the comments area below. If you have specific questions regarding employment law, Jen Cornell can be reached at jcornell@cdflaborlaw.com or (415) 821-8854 [updated 10/7/19].

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