04/04/2006
In Washington this week, the focus has been on security, border protection and illegal workers. Regardless of the ultimate results of the debate, which continues as I write, you can be sure that it will be yet another employment law that small-business owners will need to understand and follow.
Today, small-business owners contend with antidiscrimination laws, family, medical and other protected leave laws, wage-hour laws, privacy laws, and workplace safety laws. They often struggle to decipher the mysteries of overlapping, sometimes even conflicting, federal, state and local employment laws.
For example, in 1993, Congress passed the Family Medical Leave Act, which provides protected medical leave to employees. Nearly every state has adopted some form of this federal legislation. However, state legislation often applies to much smaller businesses and may, in some cases, have even more stringent requirements.
These laws and regulations also are expensive; according to the Small Business Administration, workplace compliance costs small business nearly 10 percent more per employee than it costs large businesses. The problem is compounded by the fact that small businesses often times can't afford human resources or legal departments to give them advice on the laws.
Never before have small-business owners had such an incentive to get educated about employment issues. Far too many companies are sued, and often have to pay huge sums of money, because owners and managers either did not understand the often times confusing provisions of these myriad employment laws, or did not adequately enforce them. Supervisors need to be trained on good personnel practices, and all employees should be aware of discrimination laws—a tough assignment for the men and women who are focused day-to-day on running and growing their businesses.
That’s the reason NFIB's Legal Foundation will open an employment law hotline for its members this month, providing them with access to attorneys who can answer basic employment law-related questions.
Whether they need clarification on the Americans with Disabilities Act, or want to find out what their business has to do to comply with a certain Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation, the hotline will help with discrimination and immigration issues, labor and management relations, non-compete agreements, health benefits and more.
These are questions that often overwhelm small-business owners, but can be easily answered by experts who can assist small-business owners in determining whether they need to seek legal counsel, or if they can solve the problem on their own. That will go a long way toward helping small businesses do what they all want to do—the right thing.
