Employers Face Many Employment Law Risks; Tread Carefully
The 30 attendees at the March 28 Central Jersey Think Tank meeting were treated to an informative—and eye opening–explanation of the myriad pitfalls facing NJ employers. The presenter was Gary S. Young, Esq., Partner & Chair, Employee Benefits & ERISA Group at Scarinci Hollenbeck.
“Business is the art of taking risks,” he explained. “If you don’t know the risks you’re taking regarding employees, then you’re simply walking through a jungle with plenty of cats waiting to pounce. Take the time to manage employment risks properly, which begins by knowing the risks. With ever-expanding governmental impositions, an often over-looked risk is making sure employees are being taken care of properly and are given access to their privileges.”
Some of Gary’s main points included:
- Make sure exempt/non-exempt is clearly explained to all employees—and that overtime pay is given to all non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours in a defined work week. Job descriptions that make clear the employee’s status are strongly recommended.
- Continually update your employee handbook—and share the changes with your employees.
- Be sure to explain your written workplace harassment policy to employees, conduct supervisory training and make very clear that workplace harassment will not be tolerated—If you fail to do these things, you will have no defense against a harassment claim.
- Pay salaries in cash without deductions—and you’ve become a criminal co-conspirator with your employee. Guess who the government will go after?
If you’d like further details or have some employment law concerns of your own, Gary can be reached at [email protected] or call his direct dial at (201) 806-3383.
Discussion Tables
As in previous meetings, we broke down into topical tables after Gary’s discussion to cover the following categories:
- Marketing
- Legal
- Finance
- General
The format allows for a free flowing discussion of issues that challenge business owners today. Below are a few key topics that were examined:
- Finance – Discussions regarding fraud in the Banking and Finance industry allowed attendees to learn more about how fraud relates to their specific businesses.
- Marketing Table- Attendees at the table consisted of professionals from many different industries and centered upon “How to do we get more clients?” and “How do we ask current clients for referrals?”
- Legal – The conversation continued regarding the liabilities employers face with members asking Gary for advice on specific cases.
- General – Discussion centered on the current state of the restaurant industry. The restaurant industry is a major part of our economy, but also presents many challenges for marketers, accountants, and real estate professionals.
Purpose
The Central Jersey Think Tank meets at 8AM on the last Tuesday of each month. The purpose of the group is to bring together business owners and leaders to discuss relevant topics of interest to NJ business owners. The group looks to share business knowledge and enlighten members on critical business issues. The group is not a networking group although significant business is exchanged. Membership is by invitation only. Members are encouraged to bring like-minded business owners to the meetings as well as offer to share their areas of expertise either through presentations or by leading informal discussion groups.
The meeting is sponsored by the Ocean Township accounting firm of Lawson, Rescinio, Shibell.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Central Jersey Think Tank will be at 8AM, April 25, at The Renaissance, 1110 Valley Road in Ocean.
Guest speaker will be Certified Retirement Income Specialist, Richard Pasick who will be presenting “Savvy Social Security Planning for Baby Boomers”.
For more information on Richard Pasick, visit his LinkedIn page.