California and New York have some of the most peculiar, complex, and employee-friendly laws in the nation. Even honest, well-intentioned employers in California and New York make mistakes. A, and those mistakes can be costly. In addition to paying whatever amount is necessary to correct the mistake, employers also have to pay back-due wages, statutory penalties, civil penalties, liquidated damages, and interest.
Counseling and Preventative Advice
Workplace Legal can help you avoid those costly penalties. We provide day-to-day advice and preventive counseling to employers and their HR teams on the full spectrum of HR and employment law issues, including:
- Creating and implementing a compliant, effective HR infrastructure
- Drafting offer letter templates, Employee Handbooks, confidentiality agreements, mutual arbitration agreements, and other employment policies and agreements
- Analyzing whether a worker can qualify as an “independent contractor”
- Creating compliant payroll policies and procedures
- Analyzing whether an employee is “exempt” or “non-exempt”
- Advising on pregnancy, disability, paid sick leave, paid family leave, and other leaves of absence and return-to-work situations
- Counseling on employee performance issues, including creating effective, defensible performance improvement plans (“PIPs”)
- Advising on employee disability issues, including guiding clients through the “interactive process” and analyzing “reasonable accommodation” options
- Designing and implementing lawful employee background checks, reference checks, and drug testing policies
- Creating employee performance evaluation systems
- Advising on difficult or sensitive terminations, including drafting separation/severance agreements
- Drafting state-of-the-art commission, bonus, and other incentive compensation agreements
- Counseling on reorganizations, layoffs, and reductions-in-force (RIFs)
- Conducting HR audits to ensure compliance across all HR and employment systems, policies, and procedures
At Workplace Legal, we proactively partner with clients on a daily basis to help them more effectively recruit, retain, reward, and manage their employees. We provide smart, strategic HR and employment guidance designed to prevent employee disputes from arising in the first place.
